On the 2-day tours, I take visitors to privately-owned gardens, some of which they may not have yet discovered! Each has, in my opinion, something extra special to offer – maybe the setting, the design, the planting, the history, or a combination of all of these. They include: a 3-acre garden in West Sussex surrounding a Georgian house with a fantastic 1/2 acre walled kitchen garden used to grow fruit, vegetable and flowers for the house (and where the Head Gardener happens to be an RHS award-winning photographer!); a 16th century house in East Sussex set in 6 acres of garden which is divided into smaller gardens reflecting different periods of English garden design including an old-fashioned rose garden, double herbaceous borders and fabulous views over rolling parkland beyond the ha-ha; a large, working country estate in Kent with a Queen Anne-style house and formal gardens at its centre;arge, working country estate in Kent with a Queen Anne-style house and formal gardens at its centre; Great Dixter, well-known to keen gardeners the world over (and often teeming with visitors at this time of year) where this opportunity of a private tour when the garden is not open to the public, truly enables us to fully appreciate its own intimate atmosphere; and, on a smaller scale, a delightfully tranquil mature garden, lovingly tended by its artist owners whose eye for colour and form is reflected in their garden.
On a one-day tour, it may be that I can arrange to include one or other of the above gardens, or possibly a garden which is open for the NGS scheme where people open their gardens in order to raise funds for charity – a wonderful way to visit private gardens and at the same time contribute to charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Cure – www.ngs.org.uk
