The English Garden

Enjoy over 60 beautiful gardens a year with The English Garden. Every issue features country, city, cottage and coastal gardens, with advice on how to recreate them. Be inspired by articles written by the country's top garden designers and discover the best plant varieties for your garden, chosen by expert nurserymen and plantspeople.

WELCOME

THE ENGLISH GARDEN

The Constant GARDEN • Planted to provide something to look at on every single day of the year, Ivy Croft in Herefordshire is testament to the excellent taste of Roger Norman and his late wife, Sue, and is imbued with anticipation as the seasons change

Plant of the Month • Hard-working heavenly bamboo gets the new year off to a colourful start with its fiery foliage

Things to Do • Even in this quietest of months, there’s still pruning, planting, tidying and forcing to attend to

Instant UPLIFT • The joys of spring have seldom been more in evidence than at Patricia Elkington’s naturalistic garden at Little Court in Hampshire, where bulbs and wildflowers combine to lift the spirits and raise a smile

Plant of the Month • With its elephantine colour-flushed foliage, bergenia offers useful early-season groundcover

Things to Do • Winter is coming to an end, and it’s time to start sowing sweet peas and chitting potatoes

First BREATH • Early spring is a very special time of year at Devon’s Mothecombe House, when new life suffuses its awakening 14 acres with fresh colour from magnolias, camellias and swathes of spring bulbs

Plant of the Month • Enjoy a long display with the spring blossom and delicate bronze foliage of the amelanchier

Things to Do • Early spring is the time to start thinking about sowing crops of tomatoes and hardy vegetables

The New OLD WAYS • A grand old Tudor manor house whose gardens had slipped into disarray, Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire underwent a revival in the 1950s thanks to Elizabeth Macleod Matthews, and her methods are employed by her daughter-in-law, Boo, to this day

Plant of the Month • A sugary show of pink from ornamental cherry trees brightens up the April garden

Things to Do • Start thinking ahead to summer displays by buying great-value plug plants to grow on now

Words Unspoken • The silent dialogue between the landscape at Highlands in East Sussex and the team who nurture it has resulted in a beautiful garden where nature leads the way

Plant of the Month • The lacy white flowerheads of the guelder rose are just the start of its spectacular show

Things to Do • Feeding and weeding is key as temperatures climb… and keep a close eye out for pests

The Great ESCAPE • Following Thomas Church’s maxim that ‘gardens are for people’, designer Matthew Childs has ensured his own garden at Ivy Cottage in Surrey is a magical place for its inhabitants’ total relaxation and enjoyment

Plant of the Month • Structure all year round comes courtesy of phlomis, whose creamy whorls of flowers appear now

Things to Do • Tender vegetables and summer bedding can be planted out now the risk of frost has passed

Comfort ZONE • The warm embrace of the immersive multi-layer gravel garden at Elmbridge Lodge in Surrey is irresistible to Julia Hickman, being filled with plants collected over the decades, gifts from friends and gardening memories of her late husband, Peter

Plant of the Month • Add star appeal to your garden with the showy flowers of the lesser-seen eastern bluestar

Things to Do • Enjoy the fruits of your labour in the vegetable patch and start taking cuttings for next year

A PASSION Shared • It’s the delighted reaction from visitors to Glenarm Castle that inspires the Earl and Countess of Antrim to continue their hard work in...