The English Garden

Enjoy over 60 beautiful gardens a year with The English Garden. Every issue features country, city, cottage and coastal gardens, with advice on how to recreate them. Be inspired by articles written by the country's top garden designers and discover the best plant varieties for your garden, chosen by expert nurserymen and plantspeople.

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From the Editor

THE ENGLISH GARDEN

This Month • Our guide to plants, people, gardens and events, tasks and shopping in July

People to Meet • Introducing the gardeners and public figures we most admire in British horticulture

Out & About • Unmissable events, news and the very best gardens to visit this month

Things to Do • Immersing herself in the joys of high summer, Jane Moore is using the cool early mornings as the time for hard work and revelling in clouds of butterflies

Beautiful & Useful • New plants, books, tools and creative designs, plus shopping inspiration

Bird Watching • From the serene songbird to the ethereal sandpiper, ornithological inspiration is timeless. Whether you’re looking for a rich wool throw, a vibrant print to adorn your walls or a beautiful illustrated coffee table book, the avian world has long been an established subject of interior design, art and everyday objects of beauty. Sea Birds Tea Towel, £13. Tel: 01778 560256; sophieallport.com.

Out of the WOODS • At French Court Farmhouse in East Sussex, from what was once a densely wooded space with trees growing right up to the windows Suzie Gibbons and Guy Chadwick have carved out open meadow and a sun-drenched courtyard garden filled with Mediterranean planting

Click & CONNECT • Uniting the house and garden of The Old Rectory in Westwell with their historic setting was a challenge relished by designer Richard Taylor, who has slotted a rich palette of plants and clever new landscaping around listed elements for a truly timeless feel

Local LEGEND • A chocolate box cottage set in a picture perfect garden, Upper Woodhill Farm in Surrey is locally famous for its charming froth of abundant year-round colour, easily viewed from its country lane setting

Flying Colours • The historic gardens of Hutton-in-the-Forest in Cumbria have an established, rigid design that owner Cressida Fletcher-Vane and her gardening team have worked to soften with billowing annuals and perennials in all the colours of the rainbow – much to the delight of visitors

Home EMPIRE • Gael and Francesco Boglione’s world-famous Petersham Nurseries is renowned for its relaxed naturalism and bohemian charm, and their own garden is now a wonderful extension of that same aesthetic

Rise & SHINE • Fervent fundraising, a band of loyal volunteers, careful restoration and some very generous donations have put ailing Arts & Crafts Winterbourne House back on the map, making it one of Birmingham’s most dazzling days out

Storybook ENDING • On her return to the UK, after a life lived mostly in America, Melanie Hanson yearned for a garden filled with fairy-tale intrigue, theatrical surprises and masses of romantic roses. Designer Kit Peel was at hand to make that dream a reality

Night Lights • Illuminate your garden and light the way for nighttime pollinators with expert advice from Hannah and Nick Wade on choosing plants that glow

Bright Horizons • The Royal Parks are among London’s greatest and most accessible assets, and while environmental issues are forcing change, under the stewardship of Matthew Pottage the horticulture on display is set to be more exciting than ever before

Tough Cookies • Available in a more muted palette than their jewel-bright New World cousins, hardy salvias offer the same vertical interest and sustenance for pollinators, but their robust stems and tolerance...