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.

This book tells the story of one of the most important gardens in Europe, created by the architectural critic and designer Charles Jencks and his late wife, the landscape architect and author Maggie Keswick. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is a landscape that celebrates the new sciences of complexity and chaos theory and consists of a series of metaphors exploring the origins, the destiny and the substance of the Universe. The book is illustrated with year-round photography, bringing the garden's many dimensions vividly to life.

A comprehensive visitor's guide to some 130 gardens in Devon. Illustrated with colour photographs, it includes a general introduction to the geology, climate and garden history of Devon; a list of nurseries and garden centres in the county, and a calendar of opening times. It is suitable for garden-lovers, whether visitors to the county or locals.

'This book will inspire and delight … the stories of these gardens so compellingly captured by George Plumptre make the reader stop and tarry awhile, marvelling at the energy, the vision and the passion of the people who created gardens such as Hidcote, Sissinghurst and Great Dixter.' (The English Garden) 'A feast of horticulture and Englishness.' (House & Garden) 'Tells the tale of the English Country House Gardens over the past 500 years expertly and informatively.' (Countryside Magazine) 'Sure to become a classic.' (Garden Design Journal) Gardening Book of the Year 2014 (Daily Telegraph) Revised and updated edition. There is something special about the English country house garden: from its quiet verdant lawns to its high yew hedges, this is a style much-desired and copied around the world. The English country house is most often conceived as a private, intimate place, a getaway from working life. A pergola, a sundial, a croquet lawn, a herbaceous border of soft planting; here is a space to wander and relax, to share secrets, and above all to enjoy afternoon tea. But even the most peaceful of gardens also take passion and hard work to create. This new book takes a fresh look at the English country house garden, starting with the owners and the stories behind the making of the gardens. Glorious photographs capture the gardens at their finest moments through the seasons, and a sparkling and erudite text presents twenty-five gardens - some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some never-before-photographed - to explore why this garden style has been so very enduring and influential. From the Victorian grandeur of Tyntesfield and Cragside, to the Arts & Crafts simplicity of Rodmarton Manor and Charleston; from Scampston, in the same family since the 17th century, to new gardens by Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith; and with favourites such as Hidcote and Great Dixter alongside new discoveries, this book will be a delicious treat for garden-lovers.

In England, garden-visiting is a national obsessions. More than 80 years ago, the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) was founded with the aim of raising money for charity by opening gardens of interest to the public. This book gives you the opportunity to enjoy 50 of the country's greatest gardens from the comfort of your armchair.

From Tresco to Lindisfarne, Anglesey to Sark, travel around the British Isles and discover the most beautiful and extreme island gardens on this visually stunning tour. The British Isles consist of more than 6,000 islands scattered around the main islands of Britain and Ireland. More than 100 of these British off-shore islands are inhabited – and where there are people, there are gardens. Lighthouse gardens, gulf-stream-soaked, tropical gardens, windswept remote gardens with giant and ancient yew trees, and gardens surrounding castles and monasteries of historical significance. Encounter a huge variety of habitats and gardening conditions, from coastal machair to woodlands, mountains, dunes and meadows, and explore a wide range of aspects, from shady dells, to sunny banks, deep-soiled productive gardens to rocky, alpine slopes. While they can differ dramatically with regards to aesthetics, what all island gardens share is the special light, magical atmosphere and indefinable magic that a proximity to water can bring. Here, Jackie Bennett reveals the challenges their gardeners face, the designs required in such extremes, and the skills their gardeners have mastered to survive and thrive, accompanied by stunning photography by garden and drone photographer Richard Hanson.

The Garden Visitor's Handbook is the famous yellow 'bible' for anyone interested in gardens and the 2021 edition is now available. Its 744 pages contain descriptions of the 3,700 gardens opening to visitors throughout England and Wales this year, and offers people unique access to the most beautiful gardens in the country. Most are privately owned and never otherwise accessible, so the book offers a magical entré to these wonderful domains. Funds raised at the gardens on their open days come from admissions, teas and plant sales and are donated to the National Garden Scheme which in turn donates the net proceeds every year to a group of nursing and health charities. Currently these donations total £3 million annually and, since its foundation in 1927, the National Garden Scheme has given away a whopping £60 million. The main beneficiaries include some of Britain's best-loved charities including Macmillan, Marie Curie, the Queen's Nursing Institute, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, Parkinson's UK and Horatio's Garden.

Quiet Gardens is an exploration of horticulture as a medium for meaning and for spirituality. In an increasingly secular age when absolute values are taboo, political correctness reigns supreme, and our lives orbit Planet Consumer, we need experiences to balance the emphasis on material acquisitions. Internationally, tensions are running high in the global village and environmental issues are at the top of the agenda. The shadow of terrorism emphasises ideological differences, but it also draws together those living underneath it: inter-faith and ecological conversations have become necessities rather than luxuries. In this climate, with the yearning for experience and our new understanding of collective responsibility, the spiritual dimension can flourish; but the desire to pursue the spiritual manifests itself, not in traditional or institutionalised religion but in new ways. This book describes a journey that seeks to re-investigate mankind's relationship with nature and, through this, an understanding of what is spiritual. The Bible begins with the story of creation and of God walking with the man and the woman in the garden in the cool of the day. For many, enjoying and/or making a garden is both a connection with the wider environment and a link to that which is beyond ourselves, and the book includes a section on the Christian charity, the Quet Garden Trust, featuring some of its unusual and remarkable gardens. From conversations with three leading garden thinkers and creators (Charles Jencks, Beth Chatto and Sir Roy Strong), the journey takes us on a path of exploration and discovery, via Buddhist, Ba'hai and Islamic gardens, to the making of an inter-faith garden which won a medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. It shows us that the relationship between meaning, spirituality and horticulture transcends cultural and religious differences and offers hope for the future.