The English Garden

Enjoy over 60 beautiful gardens a year with The English Garden. Every issue features country, city, cottage and coastal gardens, with advice on how to recreate them. Be inspired by articles written by the country's top garden designers and discover the best plant varieties for your garden, chosen by expert nurserymen and plantspeople.

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THE ENGLISH GARDEN

This Month • Our guide to plants, people, gardens and events, tasks and shopping in February

People to Meet • Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture

Out & About • Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month

Things to Do • In January, Jane Moore is dividing and replanting snowdrops in the green, sowing snapdragons and enjoying the soothing process of pruning wisteria

Beautiful & Useful • New plants, books, tools and creative designs, plus shopping inspiration

When Life Gives You Lemons • A bowl full of fragrant zesty lemons makes a wonderful addition to any kitchen and offers myriad flavour-boosting uses. Take inspiration from cheery citrus shades to bring a vibrantly Mediterranean touch to your home and garden – even at this darkest and coldest time of year. Boxed Scented Candle - Lemon Tree, £12.99. Tel: 020 7708 6381; shop.giselagraham.co.uk

Pinnacle of Success • The grand old pile of Madresfield Court is a landmark in the Malvern Hills and the inspiration for Brideshead Revisited. As you might expect, it has majestic moated gardens to match with design input from such luminaries as Thomas Mawson and Tom Stuart-Smith

Sweet Disorder • Abundance and exuberance underpin the cottage garden at Charleston in East Sussex, formerly the base of the bohemian Bloomsbury Group and still demonstrating artist Vanessa Bell’s love of all things gently chaotic

The Stuff of Legend • On top of a hill and sheltered by ramparts, the gardens of Rockingham Castle in Leicestershire are being re-imagined to bring new life to this richly historic and storied site

Lost & FOUND • Hidden in a Dorset valley, Littlebredy Walled Gardens have endured many peaks and troughs over the years. After a fall from their productive 19th-century peak, they have been rescued from neglect by a team of volunteers – but once again the future is uncertain

From Time TO TIME • The majestic gardens at Suffolk’s Somerleyton Hall span epochs, with stately features including a sunken garden, maze and a historic parterre, with plenty of fascinating tales to tell from across the centuries

Green Learning • Find out how to make your gardening practice more sustainable and reduce your impact on the planet by undertaking a course from a provider with an environmentally conscious ethos

First Impressions • Early spring bulbs light up the garden at an otherwise uninspiring time of year. Wallington’s head gardener Simon Thompson has ten to recommend

Everyday Heroes • Hard-working evergreen grasses will happily form an unassuming backdrop to more flamboyant planting. But as Rosie Holman of RHS Garden Wisley explains, with a little creativity they can be stars in their own right

LET IT GROW • Take the hard work out of lawn maintenance by letting the grass grow, leaving more time between cuts, setting the mower’s blades higher or creating meadow areas that will boost diversity and soil health

Active Heritage • Formerly one of the country’s grandest show gardens, built to a ‘Capability’ Brown design and filled with an array of hothouses, Bedfordshire’s Luton Hoo is undergoing restoration while functioning once again as a productive garden

Fine Detail • Rui Jiang has embraced the intricate art of botanical illustration, capturing the wonder of plants from every angle and...