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I pitted AI against a much-loved 1963 gardening book to see what to do with my little corner of Ireland — here's what happened
Our columnist Jonathan Self has relied on his old gardening books for decades. Can a newcomer in the form of Claude AI take their place?
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Where was Guy Ritchie's Young Sherlock series filmed? In a historic Welsh home that first appeared in Country Life a century ago
Llanvihangel Court has a Spanish Armada-era avenue of trees and may have been visited by Charles I. To celebrate its star turn in Guy Ritchie's new Amazon Prime television series, 'Young Sherlock', we're revisiting our feature and photographs on the house that first appeared in the magazine in 1916.
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Ancient time-telling devices — turned garden ornaments — from the Country Life Archive
Man has been consumed by time and how to tell it for millennia. Sundials are an important part of this history and there are plenty of pictures of them — in some of Britain's most beautiful gardens — hiding in the Country Life Archive.
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Alan Titchmarsh: I'm planting a brand new garden — here's what's going in, what I'm trying out, and the plant that's sending me in search of my axe
Moving to a new house means getting stuck in to a new garden — and even in his seventies that's still a huge thrill for Alan Titchmarsh.
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'There was the land, the money and the desire to show off both': The incomparable skill and immaculate timing of Capability Brown
Tiffany Daneff pays tribute to Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the great landscape gardener who re-shaped huge swathes of Britain.
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I'm a tulip in a bottle, baby: A very British botanical beauty contest is gaining fans of all ages
Launched by Matthew Rice to publicise his local gardening club, the annual Tulip in a Bottle contest is popular with everyone, finds Tiffany Daneff.
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Sarah Raven: ‘I find nature very inspiring and reassuring, when things are feeling a bit dire in the world and we have world wars’
The gardener and writer on her love of Cretan wild flowers, why she quit her job as a doctor, her husband’s grandmother Vita Sackville-West — and her consuming passions.
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Growing leeks: What to plant, when to to it, and how to make them thrive
Our grow-your-own expert Mark Diacono shares his favourite leeks.
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A cheat's guide to bulbous irises and top tips for growing them
Isabel Bannerman is bewitched and bewildered by bulbous irises.
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Colour photographs of Gertrude Jekyll’s garden, rediscovered in the Country Life Archive, offer a rare glimpse of what it looked like at the peak of her fame
In 1997, Country Life published a set of chromatic photographs of Gertrude Jekyll’s Munstead Wood garden that had lain undisturbed in our archive for nearly a century. We have reproduced the pictures, corresponding feature and captions here.
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A dream built in glass, for herbs, flowers and 'lots of fancy tomatoes'
Gentle curves ensure that this greenhouse fits seamlessly into the corner of an Oxfordshire garden, finds Tiffany Daneff. Photography by Clive Nichols.
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No garden should be without a winter-flowering daphne, so we've picked the best
There is no such thing as a disappointing daphne, Charles Quest-Ritson
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'It was the only design that spoke the same language as the house. It immediately felt right': An Oxfordshire home where house and garden work in perfect, asymmetrical harmony
Understanding the language of this house in the Chilterns was the key to creating a garden that would complement it. Tiffany Daneff takes a closer look, and speaks to both the owner and garden designer Angus Thompson to discover how it came about. Photography by Rachel Warne.
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You don’t need to live in the countryside or have acres of space to start a cutting garden
Amy Merrick consults the expert growers at The Real Flower Company on her new West London cutting garden.
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Intrepid, enterprising, dedicated: The new generation of nursery owners creating the flowers we'll be enjoying for decades to come
David Carver is typical of the new generation of nursery owners, determined to save historic collections and produce new hybrids. John Hoyland paid him a visit to find out more; photographs by Clive Nichols.
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Alan Titchmarsh: Patience is in short supply today, but learning when to crack on and when to leave well alone will do your garden wonders
Alam Titchmarsh cannot wait to get to work in his brand new garden, but acting too soon could have long-lasting ramifications.
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Penns in the Rocks: The East Sussex garden created by Vita Sackville-West, with a little help from the huge boulders that stood here when dinosaurs walked the earth
It’s not only the pre-historic rocks that set apart the garden of Penns in the Rocks, near Tunbridge Wells, says George Plumptre. It's the fact that the layout was created by two horticultural legends: Vita Sackville-West and Lanning Roper. Photography by Jason Ingram.
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William Robinson, the visionary gardener 150 years ahead of his time
A century and a half before the word 'rewilding' entered the gardening lexicon, a pioneering gardener named William Robinson was advocating for a more natural approach to our green spaces. Tiffany Daneff examines his legacy, and his home at Gravetye Manor.
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Springing in the rain: The science behind the smells of the seasons
Spring is just around the corner, and so too is an assault on the senses.
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'It was like going on a blind date... over a few glasses of wine our friendship was sealed and by three in the morning we had a plan': The creation of a spectacular Moroccan garden
Scrubby farmland near Marrakech has been transformed into an exceptional garden with views of the snow-capped Atlas mountains. discovers Kirsty Fergusson discovers the gardens of Riad Nouria, home of Lexi and Helena Oswald. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
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Alan Titchmarsh: I'm always asked about 'creating a sensory garden', and my answer is always the same
From the chirruping of the birds to the sweeping of a broom, Alan Titchmarsh shares the sounds that all our gardens have in common.
