In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I talk about the journeys plants have made with us – crisscrossing the globe and leaving Earth entirely for missions in space.
01.08.2023 - 15:39 / theenglishgarden.co.uk / Clare Foggett
The fascinating garden at Knepp Castle in Sussex, home to ‘Wilding’ author Isabella Tree, reopens for the scheme this year. Credit: NGS
Vote for your favourite National Garden Scheme garden here.
F irst, we need you to nominate your favourite National Garden Scheme garden to visit. It can be any one of the gardens opening for the Scheme this year and you can be its owner, or simply an admiring visitor.
Next, a panel of judges will review all the nominations and select a shortlist of gardens for each of the six National Garden Scheme regions: Wales and the Marches; North; Midlands; East; South East; and South West. You will then be asked to vote on the shortlist to produce the winners – one for each region and one overall ‘champion’, as well as one overall winner from those gardens that are usually open to the public but agree to donate their takings from a particular day to the National Garden Scheme.
Every garden that opens for the National Garden Scheme can be found online at ngs.org.uk and they are all listed by county in The Garden Visitor’s Handbook 2023, also known as the ‘Yellow Book’. Order a copy online at ngs.org.uk/shop
Dip-on-the-Hill, a quirky garden of palms and foliage in Suffolk, is opening her Wiltshire garden for the scheme this year. Credit: Carole Drake
Thousands of gardens, from country estates to tiny urban plots, open to visitors to raise money for the National Garden Scheme and the charities that are its beneficiaries.
A visit to a National Garden Scheme garden is an essential part of the gardening year, and through their visits garden lovers have raised more than £50 million for nursing and caring charities since the Scheme’s inception in 1927. Having donated £16.7 million to Macmillan Cancer
In Jade Pearls and Alien Eyeballs I talk about the journeys plants have made with us – crisscrossing the globe and leaving Earth entirely for missions in space.
I don’t generally watch Gardeners’ World these days, but two weeks ago they broadcast a special edition (episode 20 in this year’s series) as part of the BBC’s Big British Asian Summer, exploring South Asian influences on British gardens. Monty Don ‘hosted’ the show from the stunning gardens of Europe’s first traditional Hindu temple, BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London. The stonework for the temple itself was all carved in India, then brought to London to be assembled. Flowers, particularly the sacred lotus, are represented throughout the decorative motifs. Mountains of flowers are used in the temple’s religious ceremonies, and I was intrigued to learn that – in India – there are businesses based around recycling temple flowers into products such as incense sticks, soaps, and eco-packaging, to reduce their environmental impact. At the London temple, the gardens are a fusion of a European parterre-style design, with Indian motifs, colourful flowers, and a delightful lack of symmetry.
The political weather has been stormy of late, and as the sun has come out to play at last, the garden seems the safest place to be. There’s a lot to be done to get it ready for the growing season, so time spent outside is never wasted. A lot of what I’m doing at the moment could best be termed ungardening, clearing out the contents from last year’s containers, and reusing the potting compost in the bottom of new pots, or as a soil improving mulch.
As I mentioned last month, for the time being I have decided to use my low-level trough planter for flowers, rather than the mini pond I had originally intended it for. Still, at some point in the future I would like a garden with a water feature. A natural swimming pool would be my first choice, but that seems unlikely. A fish pond would be lovely – as long as I was also blessed with hours to while away next to it, watching the fishes do their thing.
A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
A common site in many town gardens are trees that have outgrown their space. Large native trees like Oaks, Copper Beach, Planes, Weeping Willow and horse chestnuts are wonderful, but to be really enjoyed they need suitable space, like in a park. If they are planted in the garden they will
Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.