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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The English Garden

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

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 • In June, Jim Cable hides fading bulbs with Geranium ‘Rozanne’, gives perennials an early summer prune and plants crops of French and runner beans and fennel

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

Smell the Roses

Wild Things • Artist Angie Lewin explains her collaboration with writer Christopher Stocks on The Book of Wild Flowers, an illustrated reflection on the UK’s wild plants, their characteristics, place in society and the threats that they face

Grand REVEAL • The stately parkland setting of historic Godinton House in Kent conceals an unforgettable surprise at its heart: a thrilling garden of lawns, borders and terraces encircled by one of the country’s longest yew hedges

The Great ESCAPE • Following Thomas Church’s maxim that ‘gardens are for people’, designer Matthew Childs has ensured his own garden at Ivy Cottage in Surrey is a magical place for its inhabitants’ total relaxation and enjoyment

French CONNECTION • Two styles of gardening are skilfully combined at Seend House in Wiltshire, where Maud Peters blends the formality and symmetry of France with traditional English abundance to create something delightfully different

Happy PLACE • A tranquil, sheltered hideaway in the Wiltshire countryside, Little Chalfield’s garden has been planted in the most soothing of colour schemes to create a haven both for wildlife and its delighted owners

In the GENES • A descendant of the eminent horticultural Backhouse family, Caroline Thomson is preserving and celebrating her family legacy through the carefully researched and planted garden at Fife’s Backhouse Rossie

Perfecting THE PAST • History cannot be allowed to stand still at the Lutyens and Jekylldesigned Hestercombe in Somerset, where head gardener Claire Greenslade endeavours to future-proof its fine historical planting

THE HARD STUFF • A terrace offers the level, hardwearing surface needed for everyday outdoor living, so make the most of it with lounging, cooking and planting

First Flush • Senior gardener at Mottisfont Michael Harvey recommends ten lovely roses, old-fashioned and modern, to bring beauty and fragrance to the June garden

Under the Radar • Less well known than their high-climbing cousins, herbaceous clematis encompass a range of unusual sprawling or upright species. Louise Curley visits clematis expert Mike Brown to learn more

Pot Boilers • Three very special planting recipes for intriguing container combinations that will bring sparkle, drama and panache to your summer garden

TRADE SECRETS: Training Cane Fruit • Learn how to train and care for raspberries, blackberries and their crosses to maximise crops of their delicious summer fruits. George Ellis, who cares for the cane fruit at West Dean’s walled garden, offers his expert tips and advice

June at Tresillian • Summer settles in this month, and in the walled garden there are armfuls of courgettes, beans, currants and sweet peas to gather

GREEN PIONEERS • Change is afoot in the...