Secret Gardens Of Somerset

The magical and satisfying secret gardens of Somerset share the limelight with Glastonbury, cricket, cider and Cheddar cheese. From East Lambrook to The Newt, Hauser and Wirth to Hestercombe and the up and coming Yeo Valley, this book goes through the keyhole to discover Somerset's jewel gardens and garden makers.

The big skies and the extraordinary light of East Anglia make it unlike anywhere else in Britain, and offer the most amazing natural conditions in which to create gardens. The twenty-two gardens selected for Secret Gardens of East Anglia celebrate the culture, beauty and diversity of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, and all deserve to be better known. Introduced by eminent East Anglian plantswoman and national treasure Beth Chatto, the gardens appearing on these pages are brought to life by the award-winning author and photographer team of Barbara Segall and Marcus Harpur. From each garden we can learn about the creator’s style, their talent for exploiting the genius loci, and the specific challenges and rewards they have encountered. Featured gardens include: -COLUMBINE HALL A moated garden with a series of green rooms -HELMINGHAM HALL GARDENS A gem of a garden hidden in its own moated island -KIRTLING TOWER A field of daffodils for a Tudor gatehouse -RAVENINGHAM HALL Exquisite planting in the RHS president’s private garden -THE MANOR HOUSE, FENSTANTON Garden rooms on Capability Brown’s private estate - ULTING WICK Thousands of tulips against a backdrop of black wooden barns -WINTERTON LIGHTHOUSE A lush yet restrained garden framing a lighthouse -WYKEN HALL Vines and roses around an Elizabethan manor house.

A captivating portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them. Focusing on the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, this stunning book features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. This beautiful corner of England has a rich tradition of garden making, which is explored in this very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson-Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of this green pocket with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savoured and enjoyed along with those who know them best.

A whimsical and beautiful book celebrating these hidden gems of the National Trust – from specially made secret gardens to overlooked corners of famous gardens and re-discovered lost gardens. Stunning photographs of the Trust’s idiosyncratic gardens are accompanied by a light text meditating on the magic of the secret garden, and bringing in fascinating historical and botanical details. The book will include secret mazes, hidden corners, walled gardens, lost gardens, gardens that are only open one day a year, follies, orchards, dens, memorials, strange statues, stumperies, huts, ice houses, wendy houses, fairy gates and pixie houses. The gardens featured include the palm-filled Overbeck’s in Devon, Peckover House in Cambridgeshire, which bursts with exotic specimens found on Victorian plant-hunting expeditions, and Monk’s House in East Sussex, where the garden proved a refuge for Virginia Woolf.

First published in 1956, We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading gardener of the 1960s, and her husband Walter transformed an acre of wilderness into a stunning cottage garden, still open to the public at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, England. This is now one of the most important books on gardening ever written. A beautiful and timeless book on creating a garden. Margery Fish turned to gardening when she was in her mid-forties and went on to develop the whole concept of a cottage garden. She had a love of flowers coupled with a passion for nature and made an intensive research into the traditionally grown plants with which cottage gardens in Britain were once so densely planted. In this classic owrk, she recounts the trails and tribulations, successes and failures, of her venture with ease and humour. Topics covered are colourful and diverse, ranging from the most suitable hyssop for the terraced garden through composting, hedges, making paths to the best time to lift and replant tulip bulbs. Her good sense, practical knowledge and imaginative ideas will encourage and inspire gardeners everywhere.

This stunning and original British travel guide charts lesser known gardens, spectacular meadows, the best kitchen garden food, plus wild places to camp and stay.

Cess works caring for the chickens at Montacute House but on her thirteenth birthday everything changes. She finds a precious locket hidden in the chicken coop and is convinced someone has placed it there for her to find. But the day is overshadowed by fear as a boy's body is found by the river, and then when William disappears, Cess is accused by the villagers of bewitching her best friend. Cess is determined to find William and prove the villagers wrong, but is soon embroiled in a plot that threatens her world and forces Cess to draw on powers she never knew she possessed, powers that will place her life in danger if they are discovered by the villagers. Witchcraft, politics and religious ambition combine in this gripping and wonderfully realised novel set in the Somerset of the 1500s.

An insider's guide to the museum capital of the world.