Spring in England is pure delight, but nowhere more so than in Kent, the self-proclaimed ‘Garden of England’. My second career was as an restauranteur, and moving to Rye, on the Kent – Sussex border in spring, I was … Continue reading
Cliveden poses me with a dilemma – how much should I write about its colourful history, and how much about the garden itself? It would be impossible to write about Sissinghurst without Vita Sackville-West, or Great Dixter without Christopher … Continue reading
A few years ago, I visited Bilbao, and I found almost as much delight in seeing Jeff Koons’ subversive and witty giant ‘Puppy’, as I did from the setting of Frank Gehry’s famously sculptural Guggenheim Museum. Koons plumbs the … Continue reading
When I last visited Hestercombe 20 years ago, there was one great historical garden of note, the famous Lutyens garden, the Great Plat. Now there are two. The older one, the Georgian Landscape Garden was so badly overgrown that it … Continue reading
It is probably fifteen years since I last visited Cottesbrooke, and it is exciting to see the changes that have been carried out by a succession of talented designers and an enlightened client. Gardens are dynamic, and herbaceous and … Continue reading
I have to admit I write about gardens I have been to several times, gardens that excite and inspire me, and ignore the numerous ones that don’t. Earlier in the year I came away from a garden feeling even more … Continue reading