May 2020

The English Garden

Bringing the UK's most beautiful gardens to life.

The English Garden1 min read
The English Garden
EDITOR Clare Foggett DEPUTY EDITOR Vivienne Hambly ART EDITOR Jeremy Bird PRODUCTION EDITOR Vanessa Longworth EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Phoebe Jayes SALES DIRECTOR Cameron Hay HEAD OF MARKET Freddy Halliday SENIOR SALES EXECUTIVE Sachin Patel Tel: 0
The English Garden2 min read
Welcome
It feels as if a lifetime has passed since I wrote this column for our last issue, perhaps because the world has changed so much in the intervening four weeks. What an adjustment we have all had to make, but one that has been a little easier if you a
The English Garden1 min read
Contributors
Sarah lectures widely and has written books, including›Life, the Universe and Gardening and›Chalk and Limestone Gardening.›She admires the chalk garden at Ordnance House on page 48. An award-winning garden photographer and writer, published in books
The English Garden2 min read
Things to Do
Cover your crops with fleece or netting to ensure your harvest isn’t ruined and rendered inedible by tunneling root fly larvae Growing your own carrots is so satisfying: the taste of a shop-bought carrot is nothing compared to that of one pulled fre
The English Garden2 min readNature
Nature to Note
Swifts are migratory birds that need warm weather to ensure a constant supply of flying insects to eat. For this reason, they visit the UK in the summer, arriving from central Africa in May to breed and flying back there at the end of July. It’s esti
The English Garden1 min read
Sow & GROW
ALL PRICES ARE CORRECT AT TIME OF GOING TO PRESS. NOTE THAT DURING THE GLOBAL COVID-19 CRISIS, MANY STOCKISTS WILLHAVE TEMPORARILY CEASED TRADING AND MANY ITEMS MAY BE OUT OF STOCK. KEEP CHECKING BACK ON COMPANY WEBSITES FOR UPDATES. ■
The English Garden2 min read
People to Meet
The award-winning garden designer, television presenter and Garden Day ambassador gives us an insight into his design process and daily life There is no standard blueprint for garden design, but I never leave a site without knowing what I want to do
The English Garden5 min read
Taking SHAPE
I had always thought of Asthall as a special place; it was lodged in my memory from looking at photographs of the Mitford family – the six famous sisters with their brother Tom, their parents standing like brackets on either end of the line of sleek-
The English Garden1 min readGardening
Chris’s Favourite Gardens
This is a masterclass in arranging plants and is very much my style of garden. It is both plant-rich and floriferous. As a single piece of work, it’s just fantastic. Tel: 01630 685760; wollerton oldhallgarden.com This garden doesn’t get much press b
The English Garden2 min read
On Form 2020
Although visitors won’t be able to visit the sculpture in Asthall Manor’s gardens as usual this year, Anna’s beautifully curated exhibition is still available to view, virtually, at onformsculpture.co.uk, where she aims to have photographs and videos
The English Garden5 min read
Far, Far AWAY
Preen Manor is set so high you can see the weather coming from over Wenlock Edge. The roads are steep and narrow, unsuited to large vehicles and often impassable in snow. You climb up through green parkland scattered with ancient trees, through drama
The English Garden1 min read
Pleaching LIMES
Once you have decided the length and height for the pleached limes, a framework of posts and wires is required to stabilise the young trees until they are trained fully. The horizontal wires are usually set at 30-45cm apart. Planting is normally don
The English Garden4 min readBotany
SLOPE & GLORY
In Private Lives, Noel Coward wrote, damningly, “Very flat, Norfolk”. Warborough House proves him so wrong. Perched on top of a windy hill next to the North Norfolk coastline, the early Victorian building sits within a garden that slopes so steeply a
The English Garden1 min read
Spring colour THEMES
At Warborough House the focus is on a palette of purple and white, with an emphasis on spring flowering. Bulbs include globe alliums such as ‘Purple Sensation’ (stocky, with large flowerheads) and ‘Mount Everest’ (tall and white). These have self-see
The English Garden5 min readArchitecture
Circles Within CIRCLES
At times Terry and Vanessa Winters’ garden seems rather like an opera set, with every detail in exquisite order. You can almost imagine the singers coming through arches to regale you with a Puccini chorus. In the main garden you find yourself amid a
The English Garden5 min read
Garden PARTY
Picture the scene. A dreamy summer’s evening, wine flowing, live music playing in the background and a beautiful picnic to enjoy with friends. You would be forgiven for thinking this was Glyndebourne or Garsington, but no: this is Chilworth Manor, a
The English Garden5 min read
Poetic LICENCE
Merton House is only a bicycle ride away from the centre of Cambridge, but its setting in Grantchester, over the River Cam, across the Backs and beyond the Grantchester Meadows, brings a feeling of rural seclusion to the five-acre property. The home
The English Garden4 min readArchitecture
THE SHOW Must Go On
Chelsea is the launch pad for so many of the new plants and products we use in our gardens. In the absence of a physical show this year, we present a joyful celebration of this remarkable event and its colourful history. There may not be show gardens
The English Garden3 min read
Water Flow
Much of the success of a water feature depends on its surrounds. Here (left) a circular bronze feature is the carefully considered focal point for a formal herb garden. With its catch pool it consumes a fair amount space, but with appropriate use of
The English Garden4 min read
Full Sail
Cornus, usually known as dogwood, is a diverse group of plants. There are the fiery-stemmed shrubs such as Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ lighting up winter gardens, low-growing species like C. canadensis hugging the ground at 10cm tall, and Cornus mas, the
The English Garden3 min read
A Cut Above
In the walled garden at Wormsley, the Getty family estate in Buckinghamshire, head gardener Charlotte Tremlin has her hands full growing brilliant beds of flowers for cutting. These she makes available for indoor arrangements and for large events – n
The English Garden1 min read
Caring for Cornus
Flowering cornus need little pruning beyond the removal of lower branches as the tree matures to create a clear trunk. The shape of those that develop the tiered structure can be spoilt by pruning but the more upright, bushy types can be pruned if th
The English Garden1 min read
Instant GLAMOUR
Peony season is here, and never have we been happier to see their fragrant, blowsy blooms. These perennials flower for a relatively short period, from late May to June, offering their first signs of life in warm spring weather when the red leaf buds
The English Garden1 min readGardening
Good Sources
Reclaimed garden antiques and gardenalia, including fountains and statues. Tel: 01844 277188; lassco.co.uk Design, installation and restoration of larger and historic water features. Tel: 01457 866088; thefountaincompany.co.uk Water feature and desig
The English Garden7 min read
Summer’s MUST-HAVES
Well-known nursery and Chelsea stalwart ALLWOODS celebrates its 110 year anniversary in 2020 and is releasing a dianthus to mark the occasion. ‘Allwoods One Ten’ is a compact variety with good, strong stems, perfect for the front of borders or contai
The English Garden1 min readArchitecture
Clare Austin On Peonies
Busy people will find peonies to be their dream plant. They’re easy to grow and once planted require almost no attention. They will live for more years than most people are likely to inhabit their houses, and when you move, they can come too. They’re
The English Garden3 min read
May at Babington
With their varied forms – ridged, rounded, knobbly, squat or slim – and in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, white and green, squashes and pumpkins are one of the great joys of the summer and autumn harvest. At Babington House, head gardener Sophie
The English Garden1 min read
Mobile Control
Weed-control fabric lets in water but keeps out light and is ideal for keeping down weeds on fallow ground between plantings, or where only part of a bed is used. Sophie attaches the fabric to a wooden frame, which, like a lid, can be easily moved ar
The English Garden5 min read
Patterns of Life
Colours and the myriad ways they can be brilliantly combined is what absorbs artist Jane Hickman the most. She follows a painting technique known as batik, which she uses to depict rich and vibrant natural patterns on prints, scarves, interior fabric
The English Garden1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Balanced Feed
Summer vegetables need a bit of help when they are most productive. Seaweed feeds such as Seasol and Maxicrop are all-rounders. Once fruit appears, tomatoes benefit from a high-potash fertiliser such as Tomorite. You can also make a nutritious tea to
The English Garden2 min readCooking, Food & Wine
The Reviewer
Many suppliers of vegetable seed have experienced unprecedented demand in recent weeks, as anyone who has tried to purchase seed online will be aware. There is something about a crisis that inspires a desire to be self-sufficient, if not completely t
The English Garden3 min readGardening
Q&A
What brought you to write on this topic? When I had my children, I found that my garden started to run away from me. I would spend hours every few weekends trying to regain control of it, only to find myself back where I’d started just a few weeks l
The English Garden3 min readNature
The Life Aquatic
Angels come in many guises. Mick was crop-headed, craggy-faced, and arrived towing a rusty tanker behind his out-sized tractor. The problem with over-mature gardens is not simply that trees and shrubs need drastic pruning, nor that hedges need cuttin

The English Garden

More Issues From The English Garden