Planning day trips

The problems
The pleasures
Finding gardens
Garden opening
Book and magazine garden guides
Good manners
Disclaimer

The problems
Lets start with the problems which this website is designed to overcome. We have

1. Driven 70 miles to visit a garden which is open 'daily', to find it closed because small print says 'except Wednesdays' [Gardenvisit.com provides a page for each garden - if published on paper this would be larger than a telephone directory]
2. Driven 100 miles to visit a garden, which the owners described as 'a beautiful cottage garden filled with unusual plants' and found it so dull that it would scarcely have been worth crossing a road to visit. [Gardenvisit.com aims to include a photograph of every garden]
3. Returned from a long trip to find that a garden we had been wanting to see for years was only 2 miles away - but was not included in the magazine guide because the owners did advertise their generosity in opening the garden [Gardenvisit.com provides maps showing garden locations]
4. Bought copies of five published guides (total cost approx £50) and made little use of them because it was a wet summer. Buying another five guides next year is not an attractive prospect. [Gardenvisit.com information is free to the garden visitor]

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The pleasures of garden visiting

Visiting gardens yields many pleasures. One can be warmed by the sun, cooled by the rain, secluded in a place which is not often accessible. But one can also enjoy three specific kinds of pleasure:

Design: some of love to see how man's ingenuity has assembled buildings, plants, paving, water and landform to create gardens, how things were done at various periods in history, in where new ideas came from and in the work of famous men and women

Plants: some of us love beautiful plants, unusual plants and attractive combinations of plants.

Scenic: some of us, without a special interest in plants or design, simply like to see gardens which are scenically beautiful. These are places which might be photographed to go on a 'picture postcard'

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Finding gardens

The published guides are hard to use. One is always working back between and forwards between the maps, the index and the pages with garden descriptions. It is easy to make mistakes and drive 50 miles to a garden which happens to be closed. We recommend the following procedure:

1. Buy a Motoring Atlas
2. Consult a GARDENVISIT.COM map to discover what gardens are open in the area you are visiting. Print the map.
3. Decide which gardens interest you. Print the garden descriptions.
4. Use a soft pencil to mark the garden location AND the opening times on your own print of the map , or on your Motoring Atlas.
5. Plan your itinerary the night before you go visiting.

It is easy to visit one garden in the morning and one afternoon. With good planning, it is possible to visit 7 or 8 gardens in one day.

 

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A guide to gardens for gardeners

There may be 5,000 gardens in the British Isles which are open to the public - more than half the total gardens open to the public in Europe. Yet gardens are not easy to find and it is difficult to plan a trip which will include visits to several gardens. The editors have had many surprises and disappointments. Please note that some of the houses referred to in GARDENVISIT.COM are open to the public but many of the houses are not open. A few gardens which are not open to the public are included in the website because they are mentioned in the history of Garden design in the British Isles. A few continential European gardens have been included in the guide for the same reason.

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 Book and magazine garden guides

A surprising number are available. We have listed and reviewed the more popular guides.

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Garden good manners

1. Please do not take plants or parts of plants, even if they look inconsequential: garden owners treasure self-sown seedlings, always hoping for a better variety.
2. Please do not leave litter in gardens.
3. Please respect the owners' privacy

 

Disclaimer

The publishers have checked the information in the website but its accuracy is not guaranteed. Garden visitors are advised to check opening times with property owers before making a  journey.