An Ode to English Gardens

Picture credit: © Clive Nichols

The English Gardener’s Garden (Phaidon), a follow-up to the best-selling book, The Gardener’s Garden, is the type of guide you want to tuck into your back pocket once you’ve booked a trip with the sole purpose of discovering England’s most fabled gardens. While it’s too big for that—although it will fit perfectly into your suitcase— it will be your new go-to source for getting acquainted with the country’s vast manicured green spaces. There are 60 gardens showcased, both private and public, and each offers a primer on the history of English gardens and landscape architecture designed by the likes of Gertrude Jekyll, Capability Brown, and Tom Stuart-Smith. Experience the Italian-inspired terraced gardens at Rydal Hall, which is now a luxury hotel; the sunken symmetrical ‘goodly garden’ at Kenilworth Castle and Gardens which was originally built in 1575 for Queen Elizabeth I, and Sissinghurst, which has been deemed one of the most important gardens of the 20th century.

Above Pettifers, Wardington, near Banbury, Oxfordshire. Gina Price, 20th–21st century 0.6 hectares / 1.5 acres.

Picture credit: © Toby Musgrave

Tresco Abbey Gardens, Tresco, Isles of Scilly, Augustus Smith, Dorrien-Smith Family, 19th–20th century, 7 hectares / 17 acres.

Picture credit: © Jason Ingram

Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire. George London, Henry Wise, Lancelot  ‘Capability’ Brown, Joseph Paxton and others, 17th–21st century, 42.5 hectares / 105 acres.

Picture credit: Courtesy Hestercombe Gardens, Somerset/Photo Jason Ingram

Hestercombe Gardens, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton, Somerset. Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, Gertrude Jekyll, Edwin Lutyens, 18th–20th century, 20 hectares / 50 acres.

Picture credit: © Jason Ingram

Oudolf Field, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, Somerset. Piet Oudolf, 21st century, 0.7 hectares / 1.5 acres.