Sep 02, 2024

Our Top 8 National Garden Scheme Gardens to Visit This Autumn

At this time of the year as the summer flowers fade and autumn starts to show its face you can really reap the rewards of planning in advance to ensure that there is plenty of long flowering planting and dedicated autumn colour to keep your garden vibrant right up until the first frosts.

Choosing trees which give a spectacular autumn display is perhaps the easiest way to deliver the seasonal wow factor and visiting gardens which are specifically designed to be enjoyed at this time of year is a great way to pick up ideas to use at home.

We are proud partners of the National Garden Scheme who have a packed schedule of open gardens to book a visit to at this time of year - we have selected just 10 of our favourites:

Denmans Garden - Fontwell Sussex

Created by Joyce Robinson, a brilliant pioneer in gravel gardening and former home of influential landscape designer, John Brookes MBE. Denmans is a Grade II registered post-war garden renowned for its curvilinear layout and complex plantings. Enjoy year-round colour, unusual plants, structure and fragrance in the gravel gardens, faux riverbeds, intimate walled garden, ponds and conservatory.

East Ruston Old Vicarage - Norwich, Norfolk

A finalist in the Nation’s Favourite Garden competition this 32 acre garden with traditional borders and modern landscapes includes Walled Gardens, Rose Garden, Exotic Garden, Topiary and Box Parterres, Water Features, Mediterranean Garden, a monumental Fruit Cage, Meadow Gardens, Vegetable and Cutting Gardens, Parkland and Heritage Orchard.

Ivy Croft - Leominster, Herefordshire

Now over 25 years old, the garden shows signs of maturity, inc some surprising trees. A very wide range of plants is displayed, blending with countryside and providing habitat for wildlife. The cottage is surrounded by borders, snowdrops, raised beds, trained pear trees and containers giving all year interest. Paths lead to the wider garden inc mixed borders, vegetables framed with espalier apples.

Superb setting near Delamere Forest. Total area 45 acres inc mature woodland, new woodland and new arboretum all with connecting pathways. Approx 4½ acres of gardens surrounding large Edwardian house. Vegetable garden, exotic garden, chapel garden, pool garden, woodland garden, lawned area with beds.

Jewel box of over 3,000 different, beautiful and unusual plants sumptuously set out in a one acre plantsman’s garden inc shady garden with orchids, woodland gems, cottage garden borders, alpine and scree areas. Pond with opulently planted margins. Extensive herbaceous borders and effervescent colour themed beds. Sand beds showcase Mediterranean, North American and alpine plants.

Arevinti - Bury, Lancashire

The main garden has a roofed pergola with clematis growing around it and a raised pond. The Chinese garden laid with gravel has two water features, stone dragons and buddha. There is a working miniature railway in the garden shed. The churchyard contains a wildlife pond, colourful herbaceous borders and a fairy house for children.

Arevinti - Bury, Lancashire © Fiona Lea

Peelers Retreat - Arundel, West Sussex

This inspirational space is a delight with plenty of shaded areas to sit and relax, enjoying delicious teas. Interlocking beds packed with year-round colour and scent, shaded by specimen trees, inventive water feature inc a rill, raised fish pond, working Victorian fireplace and woodland sculptures.

Mount Ephraim is a privately-owned family home set in 10 acres of terraced Edwardian gardens with stunning views over the Kent countryside. Highlights inc a Japanese rock and water garden, arboretum, unusual topiary and a spectacular grass maze plus many mature trees, shrubs and spring bulbs.

If you are planning to visit these or any other National Garden Scheme Gardens do check their website and book your place in advance - all the money raised goes to supporting their excellent causes.

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