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.
CONTRIBUTORS
Welcome
The English Garden
Matthiola longipetala subsp. bicornis
People to Meet • Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture
Judith’s favourite gardens to visit
Out & About • Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month
Bunny’s Diary • This month, Bunny Guinness tries a new treatment for box moth and tackles weeds
Beautiful & Useful • New plants, books, tools and creative designs, plus shopping inspiration
Ice Cream Dreams
Level BEST • Making sense of the multi-level house and garden at Home Farm while maintaining and enhancing views out to the rolling South Downs was a challenge successfully met by designers Acres Wild and implemented by owners Pip and Mark Cliff and family
Keeping it in THE FAMILY • The Hertfordshire village of Bedmond is home to the Stuart-Smith clan, and at Serge Hill, Kate Stuart-Smith, sister of designer Tom, has filled their parents’ former market garden with romantic drifts of perennials for colour from April to October
Select INGREDIENTS • Kate Stuart-Smith’s considered schemes incorporate a range of carefully chosen plants
The Over ACHIEVER • Thanks to a clever new addition by Ian Kitson, with planting by Julie Toll, the already ambitious garden at Follers Manor on the South Downs is far more than the sum of its multi-level parts, which have all been brought together by a dramatically immersive Alpine-style path
Where Time STANDS STILL • Cheshire’s Bowmere Cottage was never intended to be a forever home for Romy and Tom Holmes, but somehow, over 42 years, it has become precisely that, its garden having grown with them to achieve a sense of serene, timeless beauty
Courtyard Inspiration
Where Past MEETS PRESENT • The Victorian structure and buttressed walls of Cox’s Hill House near Bristol provide the framework for a more contemporary – and often vertical – style of gardening, skilfully executed by Charles Harman
Bright SPARKS • Vibrant perennials make for a colourful mix in Charles Harman’s exuberant borders
Charles’s top 5 tips for a new garden project
Concealed CHARM • A thick shelterbelt has been planted around Blackdykes Farm to protect against the winds rushing in from Scotland’s East Coast. At its heart lies an accomplished garden of mature beauty that draws inspiration from the canon of English country classics
Janey Dalrymple’s gardening advice
Make a Splash • Bring life, sound and movement to your garden with a carefully chosen water feature. We speak to a selection of experts who offer their time-honed advice
KEEPING WATER SAFE
Directory • Reputable specialist suppliers and installers of a range of ponds, pools and water features
Worth the Wait • Sow the seeds of biennials now for early flowers next year. Josie Lewis, head gardener at Sarah Raven’s Perch Hill, recommends her ten favourites
In the Spotlight • With their brilliant spires of lamp-like blooms, penstemons illuminate borders and pots for months on end. National Collection holder John Lee explains how to get the most out of these trouble-free perennials
Success with Penstemons • Expert tips from John Lee on getting the most out of these long-flowering perennials
Reach for the Stars • West Dean’s head gardener Tom Brown considers gorgeous climbers for high-summer...