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Mansard House: The spectacular garden that doubles as a plant laboratory for a Chelsea gold medallist
Catharine Howard visits the gardens of Mansard House in Bardwell, Suffolk, the home of award-winning garden designer Tom Hoblyn and his wife Mary, who use it as their plant laboratory. Photographs by Richard Bloom.
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Folly Farm gardens, Berkshire: A masterclass in maintaining an historic garden
After decades of thoughtful restoration, the gardens at Folly Farm in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, blend historic and contemporary planting, finds Tiffany Daneff. Pictures by Jason Ingram.
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The gardens at Ready Token, Gloucestershire: The new, gentler blueprint for rewilding that's yielding spectacular results
Retaining the Arts-and-Crafts elements of a 1920s garden, the owners have added a sympathetic new terrace, as well as returning the surrounding fields to meadow, finds George Plumptre. Photos by Mimi Connolly.
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How Country Life helped change the face of modern gardening
George Plumptre examines how Country Life championed the marriage of formal design with natural planting, changing the garden forever.
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Coton Manor Garden: The symphony of colour where flamingos mix with flowers, voted Britain's best garden
Flamingos may draw the crowds, but it is the brilliant flower borders that keep people coming back to Coton Manor Garden, the wonderful space at the home of Ian and Susie Pasley-Tyler, says Tiffany Daneff. Photos by Clive Nichols.
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Copyhold Hollow: The 16th century house with a 1,000-year-old hedge — and a 21st century garden
When Frances Druce took over Copyhold Hollow — in the High Weald, West Sussex — this 16th-century house with its ancient box hedge had no garden to speak of. Undeterred, she built one herself, reveals Annie Gatti. Photographs by Mimi Connolly.
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The Cressy Hall topiary: 'A miraculously well-kept secret'
So fine is the topiary at Cressy Hall in Gosberton — the home of Michael and Janey Hill — that you might think it dates back to the 18th century. Yet it hasall been created over the past 20 years by a former antique dealer with little interest in gardening, as Todd Longstaffe-Gowan explains. Photography by Andrew Sydenham for the Country Life Picture Library.
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Eythrope's extraordinary snowdrops, and more winter treasures galore
Nowhere else can gardeners see rare named snowdrops growing in such measureless drifts as in the Rothschilds’ private garden at Eythrope in Buckinghamshire, finds Mary Keen. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
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Gordon Castle named Historic Houses Garden of the Year 2021
Gordon Castle has become the first Scottish garden ever to win Historic Houses' prestigious Garden of the Year award.
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The gardens at East Ruston: 'It's not simply good, it is a dose of pure joy'
Every area of this lush and exuberant garden of East Ruston Old Vicarage, near Norwich in Norfolk, is planted to give three seasons from each plot and, says Tilly Ware, a day’s visit will only scratch the surface. Photographs by Richard Bloom.
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In Focus: How an amateur gardener created Sissinghurst, one of the most influential gardens ever made
'No garden had greater influence in the second half of the 20th century' according to John Sales, the National Trust's former head gardener. Jack Watkins tells the tale of Vita Sackville-West's momumental achievements in creating the gardens at Sissinghurst.
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Chettle House Gardens: A special place, a fascinating history, and gardens that become softer and more romantic with every passing year
Hidden by gentle neglect and revealed by research, the remarkably intact 18th-century garden of Chettle House, Dorset, has been brilliantly reinterpreted by landscape designer Pip Morrison. Christopher Stocks paid a visit; photographs by Clive Nichols.
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Hopetoun House: Wall-to-wall brilliance in an extraordinary 12-acre former kitchen garden, and an inspiration to keen amateurs everywhere
Inside the early-18th-century walls of Hopetoun House, West Lothian, bold planting schemes and original designs are providing an exciting new use for this 12-acre former kitchen garden, discovers Noel Kingsbury.
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The gardens at Elton Hall: A 40-year transformation, an 'absolute hell of weeding and mulching ', and more than worth the effort
Tilly Ware visits the historic gardens of Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, where much of the distant past remains a mystery, but which, after four decades of care and attention, have been brilliantly transformed. Photographs by Richard Bloom.
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Colebrook House: The serene English country garden with a touch of Tuscany
From the new Italianate walled garden, paths and bridges lead on through the endlessly exciting garden of Colebrook House, Blockley, Gloucestershire. Tiffany Daneff paid a visit; photographs by Jason Ingram.
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The Gardens of Brodsworth Hall: Intensely personal, endlessly original, deeply quirky — and enormous fun
In the hands of English Heritage, the care and restoration of the striking mid-19th-century garden of Brodsworth Hall, South Yorkshire, is producing truly impressive results, writes Tiffany Daneff. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
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The gardens at The Old Rectory, East Woodhay: The creation of an owner with a designer's eye and a true feeling for plants
Applying many of the same parameters she uses as an interior designer helped Victoria Wormsley in the renovation of the striking walled garden of The Old Rectory, East Woodhay, Hampshire, finds Tiffany Daneff. Photographs by Mark Bolton.
