The English Garden September 2017

Louise Midgley A garden writer and professional gardener, Louise writes for the Sunday Express and is currently compiling short stories about her encounters with wildlife. She takes in Nymans’ glorious borders on page 22. Stephen Anderton Stephen is a longstanding garden writer for The Times and wrote a biography of Christopher Lloyd. He visits Hill House in Monmouthshire on page 55. Sandra Lawrence Freelance writer Sandra grows flowers at home but her first love is her allotment, on Greenwich Hill. She explores the history of garden clothing on page 99.…

September is supposed be autumnal: the start of the school year, the first of the three autumn months according to the Royal Horticultural Society’s classification of gardening seasons. But look around the garden, and autumn should feel a long way off, particularly if it is well stocked with late-flowering perennials. The gardens in this issue makes the most of all those late-summer stalwarts such as echinaceas, dahlias, red hot pokers and Crocosmia. They feature in stupendous double borders at the National Trust’s Nymans in Sussex and Helmsley Walled Garden in Yorkshire. They’re used creatively at Hill House in Monmouthshire, and to form chic planting schemes in garden designer Jeremy Allen’s home, The Old Vicarage in Essex. All are bathed with the season’s best asset: beautiful late-summer light. As much as…

ABBOTSBURY SUBTROPICAL GARDENS The flowers and exotic plants that feature on the Mediterranean Bank of this subtropical garden, near Weymouth in Dorset, are so vibrant it is difficult to believe such a garden can exist in the UK. Tel: 01305 871858; abbotsbury-tourism.co.uk HENSTEAD EXOTIC GARDEN Garden designer Andrew Brogan has created a jungle-like oasis around his home in Beccles, Suffolk, which features ponds, giant bamboo and a tropical summer house. Tel: 07715 876606; hensteadexoticgarden.co.uk RHS GARDEN WISLEY Still in its first year, the newly created Exotic Garden at RHS Garden Wisley brings a touch of the tropics to Surrey with more than 100 intriguing species, from palms to bananas. Tel: 01483 224234; rhs.org.uk/wisley GREAT DIXTER Christopher Lloyd’s renowned Exotic Garden at Great Dixter (above) features plants that bloom non-stop from…

THE GARDEN MUSEUM, LONDON After a £6.5 million refurbishment and extension, Britain’s only museum of gardening re-opened earlier this year. At the heart of the extension is a garden designed by Dan Pearson: an interpretation of a plant collector’s lust for plants, inspired by plant hunter John Tradescant, who is buried there. Inside the Museum, a former church, are six new galleries relating the story of British gardens since 1600 through more than 1,000 works of art and artefacts. The Garden Museum will be open for the National Garden Scheme on Saturday 9 September (10.30am-4pm). Admission is £5; children enter free. The Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Road, London, SE1 7LB. For more gardens to visit see ngs.org.uk…

Party in the garden TOBY BUCKLAND’S GARDEN FESTIVAL 16-17 September, Somerset Having gained a following at Powderham Castle, Toby Buckland (above) expands his garden-festival concept to Forde Abbey, near Chard in Somerset. Basket weaving, apple pressing and scything feature on the programme, alongside horticultural talks and demonstrations on topics including practical autumn gardening and vegetable growing, from celebrity gardeners such as Christine Walkden and Charlie Dimmock. Forde Abbey head gardener Danny Burlingham will be on hand to lead tours of the kitchen garden. Tel: 01460 220231; fordeabbey.co.uk ; tobygardenfest.co.uk Garden art LOUIS TURPIN ‘HORTICULTURAL JOURNEYS’ September 9-30, Oxfordshire ‘Horticultural Journeys’ is a selling exhibition of more than 40 new works by contemporary landscape and garden artist Louis Turpin. Working in oils on canvas for this…

HARVEST FESTIVAL 16-17 September, Scotland Discover the delights of growing your own vegetables with the Edible Gardening Project team at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Tel: 0131 2482909; rbge.org.uk TATTON PARK HARVEST FESTIVAL 16-17 September, Cheshire This eclectic annual harvest event offers an abundance of family entertainments, with sheep racing, woodturning demonstrations, scarecrow-making and a steam engine to admire. Tel: 01625 374400; events.tattonpark.org.uk PARHAM HARVEST FAIR 23-24 September, West Sussex To celebrate a bountiful seasonal harvest, the Parham Fair combines food, local produce and cookery demonstrations to show visitors how to make the most of the autumn garden. Tel: 01903 742021; parhaminsussex.co.uk CAPEL MANOR GARDENS 30 September, London As well as learning about produce, from ‘King Edward’ potatoes to Bangladeshi gourds, visitors will also have opportunity to admire…