Classic Gardening Magazine
Gardening as it ought to be
Great garden, great pub, and maybe a garden centre too
It's the perfect combination, I'd say. You find a really lovely garden to wander around, there is a good pub with decent food within stumbling distance, and - if you are lucky - there is a garden centre on hand too - either at the garden you have visited, or nearby.
Selflessly, I have committed a large part of the next decade to finding such places, and to telling you about them. It's dirty work, but someone has to do it. Maybe you have some finds of your own that you'd like to share. If so, do let me know and I'll link to them.
You'll find links to my favourites below. Check back regularly, as I'm for ever on my quest, and the number of gardens featured will grow like bindweed over your neighbour's fence in the coming weeks.
It's the perfect combination, I'd say. You find a really lovely garden to wander around, there is a good pub with decent food within stumbling distance, and - if you are lucky - there is a garden centre on hand too - either at the garden you have visited, or nearby.
Selflessly, I have committed a large part of the next decade to finding such places, and to telling you about them. It's dirty work, but someone has to do it. Maybe you have some finds of your own that you'd like to share. If so, do let me know and I'll link to them.
You'll find links to my favourites below. Check back regularly, as I'm for ever on my quest, and the number of gardens featured will grow like bindweed over your neighbour's fence in the coming weeks.
Waterperry, Oxfordshire
Waterperry is perfect: Eight acres of contrasting gardens within a garden, plus a country house complete with frescoes, and it's own little church.. More...
Waterperry is perfect: Eight acres of contrasting gardens within a garden, plus a country house complete with frescoes, and it's own little church.. More...
Syon Park, West London
You get
that in spades at
Wickham Vineyard, Hampshire
OK, a vineyard is not a garden, but it can be just as interesting to wander around. And Wickham also has a restaurant, where you can accompany Sunday lunch with one (or more) of their own wines. And, while there is no garden centre, there is a fantastic off-licence, so you can take a few bottles home. In all, Wickham is a great place to visit, even if I do have to retitle the series to A Great Vineyard, a Great Restaurant serving the vineyard's wine, and a shop for bulk buying. More...
OK, a vineyard is not a garden, but it can be just as interesting to wander around. And Wickham also has a restaurant, where you can accompany Sunday lunch with one (or more) of their own wines. And, while there is no garden centre, there is a fantastic off-licence, so you can take a few bottles home. In all, Wickham is a great place to visit, even if I do have to retitle the series to A Great Vineyard, a Great Restaurant serving the vineyard's wine, and a shop for bulk buying. More...
Belmont Gardens, Kent
Kent
The Castle and Gardens of MeyJohn o’Groats is an impostor. Its claim to fame is that it is the most northerly point on the British mainland – but it ain’t.
That distinction rightly belongs to Dunnet Head, a rather lovely spot crowned with a Robert Louis Stevenson-built lighthouse, a few miles west and over two miles further north.
But there can be no doubt that the most northern mainland garden is at The Castle of Mey
