Cotswolds

Hidcote Manor Garden » A famous Arts and Crafts garden, made c1905. Lawrence Johnston was a keen plantsman with a strong sense of artistic composition. Yew, holly and beech hedges are used to define a series of garden rooms. One room is occupied only by a circular raised pool. Others have a character deriving from their inspired planting. The standard of building craftsmanship is high and the number of plants which have the name 'Hidcote' point to Johnston's expertise. Were it nearer London, the garden would be as famous as Sissinghurst. Read more on Hidcote Manor Garden »

Kiftsgate Court Gardens » A nineteenth century with a twentieth century Arts and Crafts garden. It was made by Heather Muir with much help from Major Johnston of Hidcote. A woodland garden steps down the hillside to a half-moon swimming pool. Many features are typical of the Arts and Crafts period: herbaceous borders, a four square garden, a white garden, a yellow border, a rockery, lawns and a bluebell wood. Read more on Kiftsgate Court Gardens »

Mill Dene Garden » Established in 1965, Mill Dene Garden has been open to the public for 10 years. The garden surrounds a Cotswold watermill with stream and millpond. A garden of many rooms - a cricket lawn, innovative fruit garden, rose walk, and herb potager with the village church as a back drop. Alkaline/neutral clay and Cotswold brash soil - steeply sided valley running East-West, a frost pocket at the bottom by the water, sunlit hills at the top three weeks ahead of the rest of the garden. Read more on Mill Dene Garden »

Sezincote Garden » An Indian style house (1810) with an eastern 'Hindu' garden. The project was inspired by Humphry Repton and led to his 1808 book Designs for the Pavilion at Brighton. Repton favoured the style partly for its novelty and partly because neither the Grecian nor the Gothic styles, then popular, were associated with palaces. Sezincote has a temple with a figure of the goddess Souriya, a bronze serpent, Brahmin bulls, a mushroom-shaped fountain, a conservatory with minarets and an unusual curved orangery. Graham Stuart Thomas advised on the planting design. Read more on Sezincote Garden »