Gardens
Find inspiration from gardens of all sizes both in the UK and internationally
'If a tree is in the wrong place, it’s just a weed.' Meet conifer expert Tom Christian
Dendrologist Tom Christian is one of the UK’s leading conifer experts and deputy editor of Trees and Shrubs Online
This windswept plot was transformed from a scrappy lawn into an outstanding contemporary garden
Designer Declan Buckley transformed a breezy, exposed garden on an awkward site by cleverly dividing it into rooms with different characters
Love dahlias? These are the 7 dahlias top designers would have in their own gardens
Three garden designers and landscape architects – Arabella Lennox-Boyd, Ula Maria and Jo Thompson – choose their favourite dahlias for late-season colour.
Save 30% Off The Shop Price When You Join As A Member To Gardens Illustrated Today
Save 30% off of the shop price when you join as a member to Gardens Illustrated today
You could be prosecuted for not dealing with this garden weed properly. Here’s how to know if you’ve got it
Everything you need to know about Japanese knotweed and how to deal with it if you find it in your garden.
What's new?
A wildlife and child-friendly garden in California
In a California suburb where neat squares of lawn are the norm, landscape studio Terremoto has created something different.
12 great free gardens to visit in the UK this summer
You don't have to pay to get into see all beautiful gardens, many are free. Here's our list of the best free gardens in the UK
Jo Thompson to become head of garden design studies at London College of Garden Design
Jo joins LCGD alongside award-winning designer Duncan Cargill, who has been appointed deputy head of garden design studies.
You won't believe that this garden is in the Cotswolds, not California
Around a contemporary house in Oxfordshire, designer Matt Keightley has used sculptural planting and stone to create a series of stunning courtyards that look more like California than the Cotswolds
24 key plants from Piet Oudolf's field at Hauser and Wirth art gallery and garden in Somerset
The garden at the Hauser and Wirth gallery in Somerset is a planting installation by garden designer Piet Oudolf called the Oudolf Field. Here you'll find 24 of the key plants that make up the stunning perennial meadow garden.
Rural
An airy gravel garden around a modern house in Dorset
For their mid-century modernist home in west Dorset, Vanessa Barlow and Jethro Marshall looked to designer Alice Meacham to create an airy gravel garden that would complement their open plan home.
The owners discovered this hidden Arts & Crafts garden (designed by a horticultural legend) and then brought it back from obscurity
Knowle House garden has been restored to its original 1920s Arts and Crafts design, but with a modern planting twist from head gardener Chris Brown
This revitalised family-friendly front garden was turned from driveway to wildlife haven
Designer Annie Guilfoyle unlocked the potential of the space around this charming 17th-century cottage to create a joyful family garden
Meet the gardeners
"The reward from making plants for nothing is immense": Meet Sarah Byham, trainee gardener at Benton End in Suffolk
As a trainee gardener at Benton End, Sarah Byham is helping prepare the historic garden for its opening this summer.
“Rosemary Verey threw a lettuce at me. I’d done something to upset her, can’t remember what”: Michael Perry on tempestuous designers and naked gardening
Michael Perry the ‘hortrepreneur’ and social media sensation known as ‘Mr Plant Geek’, on dodging salads, posing naked for charity and embracing new cultures.
"Gardens and green spaces are for everyone and everything": Meet horticulturist Sam Southgate
Horticulturist Sam curates the woodland banks in Lady Anne’s Garden at RHS Garden Rosemoor. Portrait Jason Ingram
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.
18 must-see gardens of the world to put on your bucket list
Magical lost villages, lofty urban meadows and solar-harvesting ‘supertrees’: these are the top gardens in the world that you need to add to your bucket list, from Manhattan to Morocco and Australia to France
This subtropical oasis is a must-visit garden this year
Trebah Garden in Cornwall captivates visitors, new and returning, with its dramatic setting and collection of subtropical plants
The best hotels with gardens in the UK: stay at these places for a luxury garden experience
From majestic castles to romantic country cottages, here are 29 of our favourite hotels with gardens, including B&Bs and self-catering getaways
Gardens of the world
Worldwide gardens you need to see
Looking for a green-filled oasis in your shady plot? This small, narrow garden in the heart of Utrecht is a masterclass in how to create lush planting with texture and structure
Designer Erik Funneman has transformed a small, shady garden into a peaceful haven
Discover this gorgeous wild garden in Mallorca, designed to test how plants behave with different levels of human interaction
For his own new garden on the Balearic island of Mallorca, designer Luciano Giubbilei has created a wild, romantic space to experiment and observe how plants behave with different levels of interaction
Meet the couple who turned an empty field into a colourful organic nursery in the shadow of the Alps
Those eager to find organic, home-grown, colourful perennials will delight in Stauden Kopf nursery, in the shadow of the Alps in Austria.
Urban gardens
Amazing gardens from towns and cities
This back-to-front garden in the Cotswolds flips the expected to great effect
Emily Crowley-Wroe has used her own front garden in the Cotswolds to trial design and planting ideas.
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.
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.