Gardens to visit in Kent

I first learned the fundamentals of kitchen gardening from my mother, who learned it from her father, a passing-on of traditional skills repeated down through countless generations.

Even the smallest garden benefits from including at least one tree – if chosen well, they provide year-round colour and interest, benefit wildlife and can make a small garden seem bigger. There’s a host of beautiful trees that can be grown in a small garden, and some that will thrive in a container. Here, we share some of our favourite trees for small gardens. There are options to suit every garden style and trees that will provide fabulous autumn foliage, beautiful spring blossom and delicious fruit for you or vibrant berries for the birds. Our choices include recommendations from the Gardeners’ World team and familiar faces from across the gardening industry.

Vote now, and pick the garden you’d like to win this year’s People’s Choice award for the Gardens of the Year Competition 2023, sponsored by Yeo Valley. Take a look at this year’s finalists, and vote for your favourite below. Voting closes at noon on Monday 6 November.

Mainland UK is home to many natural treasures. While many are world-famous and are visited by millions of people each year, there are several that many haven’t even heard of, including some locals.

It’s always a pleasure to speak with our neighbors in Canada, and it’s clear the community garden movement there is alive and thriving. Judy Stafford and Naomi Kulhawy are two of Kin Park Community Garden’s biggest supporters, with Judy as executive director and Naomi as the farm director.

Herefordshire forms part of the Marches, the ancient border territories straddling England and Wales. To the east lie the majestic Malvern Hills, and winding through the centre is the great River Wye, the valley of which is burnished with colour in October and November. 

Today we’re in Portland, Oregon, visiting with Zeah.

Boglarka Zilla Gulyas, University of Sheffield and Jill Edmondson, University of Sheffield

Here are key autumn garden tips plus 7 top suggestions of plants to plant now.

Denmark continues to rank as one of the happiest nations on earth. If you want what they have, it’s time to learn about hygge garden ideas. Hygge is a concept that seems to escape Americans with our hustle and bustle and “go get ‘em” attitude, but it seems we could learn a thing or two from our Danish friends. They celebrate the concept of hygge outdoors or inside. A hygge outdoor space may include a hygge patio and hygge backyard, but don’t misconstrue the idea behind hygge — it belongs with you wherever you go. Keep reading to learn about hygge and how you can incorporate it into your lifestyle.

It was in The Pickwick Papers that Dickens wrote the often quoted line: “Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent – apples, cherries, hops, and women.” The county is still referred to as the Garden of England, even though the amount of fruit traditionally farmed there has declined over the decades. Perhaps it’s still used so widely because some of the country’s most celebrated properties and gardens are to be found in Kent.

One of the most picturesque parts of England, the Yorkshire Dales have a reputation for bearing their own, distinctive character. Lying north-west of York, the region is defined by the Yorkshire Dales National Park, established in 1954. This striking landscape is overseen by three peaks, Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside. In summer, its steep-sided glacial valleys are filled with wildflower meadows, notably at Muker, a small village popular with hill walkers. Valleys are the defining feature here, and the term dale stems from the Old English for valley, but it is also similar to the Nordic term, dal. The Norsemen controlled much of this region in the 10th century, and their footprint lingers in local dialect: ‘beck’, from bekkr, meaning stream, and ‘fell’, from fjall, meaning hill, are just two examples.