Rural

Kelmarsh Hall

Meet the gardeners

Discover Kelmarsh Hall: quintessential country style

Batcombe House garden, designed by Libby Russell

Designer Libby Russell’s own garden at Batcombe House

The zestful planting of the main borders of the garden seems to be a continuum of colourful plants but they are bisected by grass paths. In the foreground the punchy, red flowers of Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’ float around the purple flowers of Salvia nemorosa ‘Amethyst’.

Layered perennial planting in a Cheshire garden

Rousham. Photo: Andrew Lawson

Rousham: England’s most influential garden?

The view down the terraced garden to the vegetable beds, chicken run and barbecue terrace. Richly hued flowers in the dahlia patch contrast with the acid-green of Euphorbia ceratocarpa in the foreground

Coping with slopes: a terraced garden on the East Sussex coast

A long, gravel path follows the line of an old granite wall and a campana urn provides a focal point and full stop. The planting is a rich mixture of bedding, perennials and shrubs. Trees ‘borrowed’ from neighbouring gardens frame the space and link it with the landscape.

Mixing exotics and old favourites in a gardener’s garden

Sissinghurst’s Delos garden has been transformed into a Mediterranean-style space in line with the original vision. Grecian altars and a Mediterranean kermes oak are placed along the main walkway

Inside Sissinghurst’s Mediterranean-inspired Delos garden

The sheltered Gravel Garden where owners Nick and Louise Killen can sit among mounds of Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and the floating heads of Cenolophium denudatum and enjoy a view to the church where they married. The stone Farrowing House is now Nick’s office.

Creating the perfect Somerset family garden

At Upper Sydling in Dorset the landscape beyond is as much a part of the garden as the flowers within it. Here in the cutting garden, the view is framed by a floriferous mass of rambling roses, including the pretty pink Rosa ‘May Queen’, which entwine their flowering tentacles through, around and over the balustrade of ageing green oak.

Creating the perfect romantic rose garden

In a hilltop location, bands of Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Rosea’, Phlomis russeliana and self-seeded Lychnis coronaria support each other in a densely planted flower garden. The sun is setting through a Catalpa bignonioides and great plumes of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’ hide the parking area.

How to create a flower-filled hillside garden

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Discover the modern cottage garden

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A woodland garden with a modern classical home

With no hedges or boundary trees, the garden is open to the surrounding landscape and feels very much part of it, especially as the fluid planting has been designed to give the romantic, gauzy feel of a wildflower meadow but with a longer season of interest and a greater variety of plant type and form. Here, Sisyrinchium striatum, Lupinus ‘Noble Maiden’ and Phlomis russeliana catch the eye.

Informal planting for an idyllic Cotswold garden

Deep shade at the back of the house inspired a border of refined greens: tree ferns arch above the low-growing Hakonechloa macra, and Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris climbs the rear facade. An ornamental drinking bowl sits on the paving and is visited by badgers at night.

A modern meadow garden

Iris sibirica fringe a stream that flows through the orchard below Mothecombe House. The house is flanked by a large Magnolia x soulangeana already in leaf on the left and the candyfloss-pink blossom of a Judas tree Cercis siliquastrum on the right.

The enchanted gardens of Mothecombe House