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 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 • In July, Jim Cable is busy finding solutions to garden ‘mistakes’, dividing irises, sowing crops of salad and taking time simply to enjoy his outdoor space

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

Harvest Home • There are few things more fulfilling than the first pick of the harvest, be it ripe tomatoes plucked from the vine or thin-skinned potatoes freshly unearthed from the ground. Harvesting is rewarding, but it can also be hard work – it’s infinitely easier if you have the right equipment to help you.Sophie Conran Harvesting Basket, £26.49. Tel: 0114 2338262; burgonandball.com

A Grand LEGACY • Having worked tirelessly over some 30 years to shape the grounds of stately Admington Hall in Warwickshire, Antonia Davies is now happy to hand this elegantly restrained English country garden to the next generation

Test of TIME • An accomplished, plant-packed garden four decades in the making, Old Erringham Cottage is testament to the skill of its owners and, now fully mature, is both horticulturally rich and rich in memories

The Other Side OF THE HILL • Things happen and gardens grow just that little bit differently at Millfield House at the foot of East Lomond Hill in Fife, where wildlife and long sunless periods present challenges inventively overcome by the Marshall family

Wild CARD • A thoroughly modern home in the guise of an ancient barn, surrounded by strikingly contemporary planting that somehow blends in with the rural Kent landscape, Pheasant Barn breaks the mould while doing its bit for nature

Sounds OF LIFE • The garden of Bucknowle Coach House lay dormant for years, but a personal loss inspired Jonathan Ford to take action, and this beautifully designed and planted space is now filled with the rustling of grasses and the thrum of insects

Work, Rest & PLAY • A working farm, a romantic country garden and a place to swim may seem unlikely bedfellows, but at Saddington Lodge Farm in rural Leicestershire, Sarah and John Briggs have combined all three with breathtaking results

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE • Garden designer Andrew Duff reveals the many exciting and sustainable ways you can successfully introduce water as a feature in your own garden

In the Extreme • In a changing climate, finding plants to withstand both wet and drought has never been more vital. At the RHS, Jenny Bowden has been compiling a list

Florist’s Friend • Well regarded as a star component in floral arrangements, alstroemeria is also an outstanding garden plant with an endless supply of gorgeous lily-like blooms. Kerrie Lloyd-Dawson asks Sarah Hyde of H. W. Hyde and Son for recommendations

A festival of flowers • Sarah Hyde’s top tips for getting the most out of floriferous alstroemeria

Dressed to Impress • In the Cotswolds, Asthall Manor dons its summer finery – the most sumptuously spectacular display of roses. Jacky Hobbs discovers the special training and growing methods that contribute to this astonishing show

Keep Your Cool • Make the most of...