Gardens
Find inspiration from gardens of all sizes both in the UK and internationally
'Having a designer look at your garden is not an extravagance': Nigel Slater on asking the experts
We all want to put our own stamp on our gardens, but as Nigel Slater discovered, it pays to seek professional help
This easy-grow 'unicorn' plant likes shade and poor soil, and flowers in winter
Content to grow in shady spots and poor soil, unfussy evergreen mahonias are excellent for lifting the winter gloom.
From saunas to pickleball courts: the biggest gardening trends for 2026
What does 2026 have in store for our gardens? Designer Pollyanna Wilkinson looks at some of the most popular features and style trends we're likely to see more of in the year to come.
Get a classic garden apron when you join as a member to Gardens Illustrated today
Get a classic garden apron when you join as a member to Gardens Illustrated today
Is your garden boring? These experts think so. Here’s how to fix it.
We asked top gardeners to reveal the things in your garden that make them sigh with tedium, and how to turn your ‘blandscaping’ from dull to delightful.
What's new?
Garden mullets, bug snugs and the other buzzy trends that everyone's talking about right now
Top garden designers on the key gardening trends of 2025.
Get these key jobs done in January to keep your garden looking great
A new year heralds a new growing season and the promise of crops to come. Discover a new year of possibilities in your garden. Words Aaron Bertelsen
Make your Christmas presents look beautiful with these natural wrapping paper techniques
For recyclable Christmas wrapping paper that looks personal and is eco friendly, why not use natural elements from the garden? Words Ali Bell
The perfect solution for a long, thin, sloping garden that the whole family can enjoy
Over 20 years, garden designer Emily Erlam has nurtured and edited the plants in her sloping city garden to create an intriguing, immersive space. She explains how.
Nigel Slater knows how to give the perfect present, and what gardeners don't want
Tis the season for gifting, and Nigel Slater has his eyes on the perfect present.
Rural
This is what happens when a garden designer couple with wildly different tastes take on a new home garden
Around their Cumbrian home, designers
Julie Toll and Ian Kitson have created a contemporary garden fully embedded in its heritage location.
Discover the jobs that keep the gardeners at Sissinghurst busy in winter
Troy Scott Smith, head gardener at Sissinghurst, explains how he and his team prepare the world-famous garden for the year ahead.
Photographs: John Campbell
'Maximum effect, minimum effort'. This Welsh country garden is a masterclass in autumn colour
Building on the work of generations of plantspeople, Elizabeth and Ross Murray have breathed fresh life into Llanover Garden in southeast Wales
Meet the gardeners
'Garden design gets too much coverage': Mary Keen on the importance of gardeners
The celebrated garden designer Mary Keen on the importance of gardening over design, not killing pelargoniums and forgetting what she’s planted
Tackle the hardest task first and think seven generations ahead: advice from Kew's Aimee Spanswick
Horticulturist at the new Carbon Garden at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Aimee is passionate about permaculture and dismantling outdated ideas
There's a worrying trend in US gardens that's driving one American man's inspiring work
The director of horticulture at Native Plant Trust on slug hunting, turning American gardeners into backyard conservationists and the power of mentoring
Gardens to visit
Visiting a beautiful garden can be a wholly enriching experience. The benefits of visiting a garden – from mental health right through to exercise – are huge, and garden days out are perfect ways to have fun on your own, or as an entire family.
Regardless of how, and whoever you visit with, we have a host of suggestions of which gardens to visit, from gardens for the season, through to the gardens that are in full bloom and at their best each month. We have collated lists of the best gardens to visit with the help of our experts and many years of visiting gardens all around the UK, and beyond. We have gardens organised by theme, days out and local area, so you should find something for wherever you are and whatever garden experience you are looking for.
Enjoy our comprehensive guide to the best gardens to visit in the UK.
Best UK gardens open for Boxing Day walks
Many UK gardens are open this festive season, so why not work off your Christmas indulgence between Boxing Day and New Year with a winter walk at one of these 13 great open gardens?
Great last minute Christmas gifts: gardening memberships and subscriptions for 2025
Looking for a Christmas gift for a gardener after the last Christmas post delivery date? We've got the best gardening membership and subscription gifts you can still buy and gift in time for Christmas
The most inspiring winter garden walks
It may be cold outside but you can still visit beautiful gardens over the winter months. Here's our top picks of UK open gardens to visit for a refreshing winter walk
Gardens of the world
Worldwide gardens you need to see
'It's like living inside a painting'. Piet Oudolf's dreamy Nantucket island garden
For this Nantucket island hideaway, the cedar-shingled buildings are nestled around a courtyard with an archetypal meadow by Piet Oudolf
We bought an abandoned olive grove and brought it back to life with a meadow-style garden of wildflowers
A hillside garden in southern Italy with a distinctly Mediterranean planting palette is alive with the echoes of civilisations past
There’s no lawn or ugly play kit but my kids still love our garden: how to make yours both family friendly and beautiful
Dutch garden and landscape designer Arjan Boekel has transformed his tiny town garden in the Netherlands into a miniature woodland glade
Urban gardens
Amazing gardens from towns and cities
This 1960s home has been transformed by a contemporary chic garden makeover
For her own garden, designer Lucy Willcox has transformed a sloping site, blending the wildness of a neighbouring common with the sharp lines of her 1960s home.
Instead of downsizing, this couple revamped their garden into a haven for them and their grandkids
By introducing bold swathes of planting, designer Barbara Samitier transformed a large lawn into an enticing garden with multitudes to discover
From new-build construction site to low-maintenance wildflower haven: this meadowscape is the smart way to do easy eco gardening
Designer Kristina Clode has created this vision of wild immersion, mostly from seed, for an accessible new eco home set in The Weald.