Gardens are so often an expression of their owner’s character, so what would the garden be like of someone Cecil Beaton described as ‘a galumping, greedy, snobbish old toad’ and the Queen Mother somewhat more discreetly as ‘so shrewd, so … Continue reading
The many underwhelming gardens I have visited find themselves banished to the back corners of my mind. Some gardens, like Bodnant, refuse to go there yet irritate me so much that I have to write about them. Bodnant has two … Continue reading
Someone interested in gardens and gardening would have found it difficult to avoid the television obsession with garden makeover programmes. As a starting point the garden team sends a family away for a couple of weeks. The garden is then … Continue reading
I am a huge fan of garden author and broadcaster Marylynn Abbott, and her garden near Basingstoke is one of my favourites, a great garden upon which she has stamped her flamboyant personality. It is a breath of fresh air, … Continue reading
The camera can lie. Visiting gardens is not the straight-forward business it would seem to be, and I don’t like to think of the number of wasted days I have had travelling full of anticipation to see some second-rate garden … Continue reading
I have always thought that there was something curiously contemporary about the Water Garden at Studley Royal. It seems to have more in common with modern British landscapes than with Le Notre’s work at Versailles or Chantilly built just a … Continue reading