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Larch Cottage, Cumbria: An immersive journey amid a wealth of architecture, ornaments and plants to find magic and tranquillity
Charles Quest-Ritson joins the legion of garden enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage to the dramatic plant nurseries at Larch Cottage in Cumbria. Photographs by Val Corbett for Country Life.
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The gardens at Great Dixter: How Christopher Lloyd's labour of love lives on
The swashbuckling dahlias still thrill in the late, great Christopher Lloyd's at Great Dixter — in Northiam, East Sussex — but Mary Keen, a lifelong friend of this incomparable spot, is equally impressed with how the garden has evolved in the care of Fergus Garrett.
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The Cotswolds farmhouse gardens transformed from dilapidation to beauty
This former working farm in the Cotswolds with its scattering of ancient buildings has been transformed into a series of beautiful gardens surrounding the main house, writes Tiffany Daneff. Photographs by Jason Ingram.
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West Lavington Manor: The gardens four centuries in the making
Originally laid out in the 1630s, the garden at West Lavington Manor in Wiltshire is today the home of Mr and Mrs Andrew Doman. And in its latest iteration, says Charles Quest-Ritson, has found a perfect balance between planting and design. Photographs by Jason Ingram.
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The gardens of Melbourne Hall: A spectacular outdoor space 500 years in the making
The gardens at Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire have been in the same family for 500 years. Non Morris meets Lord and Lady Ralph Kerr to find out about this rare example of an 18th-century Anglo-French Baroque garden, which has not only been sensitively restored but added to with wonderful new plantings in its wilder parts. Photography by Andrea Jones.
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The kitchen so spectacular that an entire new garden was planted to make the most of the view
A modern kitchen extension was the catalyst for a bold new flower garden at Park House, Cambridgeshire, explains Tiffany Daneff.
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The gardens of Mounton House: A masterpiece restored, and a dream fulfilled
The gardens of Mounton House near Chepstow in Monmouthshire are the masterwork of Henry Avray Tipping, into which he poured his vast inheritance. Yet they would have gone the way of so many Edwardian gardens had it not been for its new owners, who had the brilliant idea of asking the designer Arne Maynard to bring it back to life. Helena Gerrish tells the story; photographs by John Campbell.
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Kate Stuart-Smith and the creation of her effortlessly romantic English country garden
Stopping spraying and allowing plants to self-seed was the first step in the gradual and brilliant reinvention of the walled garden at Serge Hill, Hertfordshire , the home of Kate Stuart-Smith. Non Morris paid a visit; photographs by Jason Ingram.
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All the King's gardens, by Alan Titchmarsh
Alan Titchmarsh considers the new monarch’s extraordinary contribution to British gardening, which is always underpinned by organic methods and a strong belief in husbandry and stewardship.
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Knoyle Place: The magnificent garden in the village where Christopher Wren grew up
The more you look at Knoyle Place — the Wiltshire home of the Comtesse de La Morinière — the more there is to admire. Charles Quest-Ritson takes a look at this magnificent garden, which has been subtly and beautifully enhanced in recent decades. Photographs by Mimi Connolly.
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Borde Hill Gardens, and the glory of its incomparable magnolias
As the fifth generation takes on the care of the historic Borde Hill Garden in West Sussex, Charles Quest-Ritson rejoices in the unique legacy of its horticulturally astute owners.
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Lukesland: The romantic Dartmoor gardens bursting with exotic blooms and historic shrubs
Set in a steep valley just below Dartmoor, Lukesland Gardens — in Ivybridge, Devon — are romantic woodland gardens filled with exotic trees and flowering shrubs, many of historic importance. Caroline Donald paid a visit; photographs by Mark Bolton.
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The Wild Garden at Doddington Hall: Bright-bulb moments
Sweeps of spring bulbs scatter the lawns of The Wild Garden at Doddington Hall — the Lincolnshire home of Mr and Mrs James Birch — in what appears to be an entirely natural show. Yet it is, in fact, a carefully curated selection that flowers in three distinct phases, says Tilly Ware. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
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Les Colombières: Ferdinand Bac’s house-and-garden masterpiece on the Riviera
A century after its seven-year creation by the artist Ferdinand Bac, the magnificent cliff-top garden of Les Colombières — at Menton in France's Alpes-Maritimes department — has been brilliantly restored, says Kathryn Bradley-Hole. Pictures by Will Pryce for Country Life.
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The garden at Fullers Mill, where 'childhood delight in wild flowers meets the idea of making a garden'
Even in the coldest months, there is much to discover in the garden at Fullers Mill, West Stow, Suffolk. This remarkable plantsman’s garden was lovingly created out of rough ground by Bernard Tickner, finds Tiffany Daneff.
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Re-wilding isn't new: Britain's best gardeners were inspired by wilderness 300 years ago, and here's what we can learn from them
Gardeners searching for inspiration for natural, low-maintenance havens would do well to look to the late-17th-and early-18th-century wilderness, says Tilly Ware.
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A tour of Broughton Hall, home of the Tempests for 1,000 years and the inspiration for Tottering-by-Gently
Broughton Hall is the childhood home of Country Life's cartoonist Annie Tempest, whose family have lived here for 1,000 years. Steven Desmond took a look at this palatial house and gardens; photographs by Val Corbett.
