When Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson bought the ruined Sissinghurst Castle in 1930, along with its surrounding estate, Harold was initially hesitant until won over by its potential. And at that time potential was all the property really had as it was an uninhabitable wreak. Harold and Vita though quickly started to create plans and…

Over its 500 year history this was a royal palace for over 200 years from the Tudor through the Stuart and into the Hanover period. Each successive period saw the house and gardens develop with the combination of great wealth and a need to impress. At this time the monarchy set the style and the…

One of the most famous gardens in England due to having to of its most impressive water features the Cascade and the Emperor Fountain. There is much more to the gardens than these and you could easily spend a full day going around the gardens and still not see it all. When you do go…

This was the home of one of the last centuries greatest garden thinks and writers, centred on a property remodelled and extended by Edward Luytens for his parents this was the lifelong home of Christopher Lloyd. Though initially he inherited the garden from his parents it became the practical extension of Lloyds thought experiments in…

Lawrence Johnson spent 41 years creating what is the most famous garden of the Arts and Crafts movement and one of the most inspirational gardens of all time. Much is made of the way the garden is divided into rooms, and this has led to many gardens trying to use this technique to create a…

This garden started out as a small garden around the home of the late Sir Harold Hillier, of Hillier Nurseries. Here he set out to create as large a collection of woody plants that could be grown outdoors in southern England as he could and as the head of Hillier Nurseries, with its vast plant…

Built in the 1620’s, the hall it is typically Tudor in appearance, and occupied up to middle of the 20th century by which time the house and gardens were derelict. The gardens themselves did not appear to be developed until the end of the 18th century when the road was moved away from the house…

Ludwig Messel’s Sussex garden was and still is more about plants than design. When Ludwig purchased the estate in 1890 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway had built up a large network of railway lines covering the Sussex making the area an easy weekend commute from London and a depressed agricultural sector (caused at…

Formally called the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew the gardens are said to have begun in 1759 when Princess Augusta started constructing a 9 acre garden around Kew Palace, though there may well have been some garden around the palace before this. It has now grown to over 300 acres in one of the world’s biggest…

Situated just 6 miles North West of Doncaster this is a garden you will find or hear little about which is a great shame as it is an excellent example of a garden of a wealthy English gentlemen in the mid-19th century. Funded as a result of a most peculiar will, the house and grounds…