RHS Wisley Garden

The Royal Horticulture Society flagship garden is expansive, meticulous and popular. Below is a lovely gravel mulched perennial bed.

Wooten House Gardens

Munstead Wood

Munstead Wood is a name I've seen on many plant cultivars. We spent a few hours looking for Gertrude Jekyll's house and garden. This would be her personal garden that she cultivated while professionally producing garden designs like Hestercombe. We're pretty sure her house was in or apart of the buildings in either photo. It's hard to say, the land had been subdivided during the wars. We asked those few people we say, one being a gardener, and they didn't even recognize the name. I found that odd. The English are crazy about gardening. Don't they know their garden history?

Borde Hill House and Garden

We arrive at Borde Hill still tingling from Sissinghurst. In strict comparison, Borde Hill is more relaxed and not overly impeccable. There is realness to the hills, land and garden.

We are guests of our host in London who has family ties to the current owners and occupants of the house. We were invited to have tea inside the house. Then a personal tour of the gardens with the Lady. We enjoyed lunch at the fancy restaurant which was wonderful. But since I was the driver for the day, I couldn't help them with the Champagne, wine and digestif....

Sissinghurst Castle Garden

The second garden on our tour was the impeccable Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent. This garden is one of the best, if not the best garden in England. Known for the room division where each room is distinctive in color, texture or theme. Once inside the room, all you see is that room, The Tower and the tree tops from the borrowed landscape of the English countryside.

Derek Jarmin's Garden

Late in the day, we find Derek Jarmen's house and garden.  Dungeness, a headland on the coast of Kent, England, is a stark place after visiting The Great Dixter Garden. Made up of a shingle beach, there are no trees and little to see although there are many unique flora and fauna here. One we noticed and loved was the sea kale.  Beautiful sea green color and eatable too.

Great Dixter

This charming garden was the first proper garden on our tour.   After seeing Chelsea Garden Show, Kew and Hyde Park in London, we hired a car and spent the afternoon in Sussex.   This garden turns out to be in the top 5 most amazing garden we saw in England.  Utterly Charming!  After Great Dixter, we raced the sun to see Derek Jarmin's garden on a stark jetty called Dungeness Headland along the Kent coast.

Kew Botanical Garden - London

Hyde Park, London

Golden Gate Park of London,  Hyde Park is just as beautiful and beloved.  I love the way they mow the paths through the open grasslands.  We enjoyed a pitcher of Pimm's cooler on the most perfect sunny day.   It had been raining for months.  We experienced Londoners soaking up the Sun.  We did too.

Chelsea Garden Show, London 2012

This one may be my favorite if I can say that.  This show was amazing and it blew my mind.  This is the work of Arne Maynard, a self taught German around my age.  There's hope.

Laural Heights Garden

A Laural Heights garden I have been working on for the last 5 years.