Nature and garden

English garden for all seasons. Winner Daily Mail National Garden Competition 2007. Winner Walsall in Bloom 2006. http://www.fourseasonsgarden.co.uk

A new garden laid out in front of the Baroque or east front of the mansion and named after the first Head Gardener at Wentworth, John Arnold. This area once accommodated the gigantic octagonal basin and fountain which was replaced in the late 18th century by simple flowing parkland to reflect new trends in garden and landscape design at that time.

In 1709, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (of the 2nd creation) set out to create an estate on a grand scale to eclipse the nearby estate of his cousin and rival at Wentworth Woodhouse.

Wentworth Castle is a Grade 1 listed building and is home to the Northern College for Residential Adult Education.

Unfortunately,the contents of the House were sold off and dispersed in 1948.

Wentworth Castle Gardens & Stainborough Park is the only Grade One Listed landscape in South Yorkshire, and contains a collection of 26 listed buildings and monuments.

The estate is now in the process of being restored, and over £16m was raised to complete phase one of the restoration (2004-08). Rare formal gardens have been rediscovered, national collections of Rhododendrons, Camellias and Magnolias enhanced and over 100,000 bulbs planted.

Wentworth Castle, was the seat of the recreated Earls of Strafford.

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45777493@N06/

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The Gardens boast one of the finest tree collections in the world, set on banks around a great lake. The famous Pantheon, Temple of Flora and Temple of Apollo (where Darcy first proposed to Elizabeth in the new Pride and Prejudice Film) form the centre-point for countless vistas from around the garden, inspired by classic Renaissance landscape paintings.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxonfenken/192706164/

The gardens at Great Dixter were created in 1910 by English architect Edwin Lutyens, in the manner of cottage gardens on a grander scale. The gardens are set in the grounds of the manor house, first built in 1220 and added to in 1464. The house boasts an impressive timber-framed hall, one of the largest surviving in the UK. The Great Hall’s roof with its oak frame and crown post, is of particular note. It is decorated with carved shields and contains a fireplace, one of Lutyens additions. The gardens and home are owned by well known gardening author and lecturer Christopher Lloyd.

Text © Barbara Ballard 2001

For full information on the garden visit http://www.destinations-uk.com, www.destinations-uk.com/gardens.php?link=gardens&coun… Dixter Gardens, Sussex and http://www.greatdixter.co.uk/

The garden is on two levels with the main area adjoining the house containing two separate areas for dining and for entertaining and relaxation. Flooring throughout is large rectangular cream travertine paving.

The main focal point of the garden is a large timber structure with integrated shelving and cream travertine topped fixed bench seating around the base. This structure has two open doorways to allow entry from different points in the space, and is ornamented on all sides with a selection of decorative fillers placed within individual alcoves. A dining area to the right of the space features a raised bed rendered block bed on which a long railway sleeper bench seat has been fixed. Three tall tapering slate planters on the opposite side to the dining area give a sense of balance to the space.

The back section of the space is on a higher level and is accessed by wide steps to the right of the cube structure. The upper garden features an artificial lawn surrounded by a travertine tiled pathway. The focal point of the upper garden is a large garden office in the bottom right hand corner.

Planting in the space is simple, low maintenance and elegant, featuring box balls and box hedging in the lower garden and tall willowy bamboo in the upper garden.

The garden is elegantly lit throughout. A set of low voltage downlighters illuminate individual alcoves in the timber cube, while stainless steel spotlights on the side wall and on each of the four corners of the cube provide ample light to the seating and dining areas. In-ground uplighters serve to highlight the planters to the left hand side and a series of low voltage lights give a calming glow to the upper garden.
To see more about this or any other of our gardens please visit our portfolio on http://www.earthdesigns.co.uk/works_2.html

This photo is part of a group showing a garden designed and built by Earth Designs, a garden design and build company based in East London.

Earth Designs garden design and build, offers a concept to completion service, suitable for clients wishing for design only or a full design and build service. We cover London, Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire, however our design consultation service is Nationwide.

To see our full portfolio please visit our website http://www.earthdesigns.co.uk or contact us on 020 8521 9040 / info@earthdesigns.co.uk

We also operate a voucher garden gifts service – our postal designs suitable for presents worldwide. To find out more about our garden gift vouchers http://www.gardenpresents.co.uk

All of our photos are copyright protected, however if you wish to use them for a feature, book or article please get in touch to discuss further.

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This is my local nature reserve which is a short walk from where I live. Although I love walking along the coast, it is also great to have some walks that you can do straight from home without the need to drive.

View On Black

English garden for all seasons. Winner Daily Mail National Garden Competition 2007. Winner Walsall in Bloom 2006. http://www.fourseasonsgarden.co.uk

from Four Seasons Garden

English garden for all seasons. Winner Daily Mail National Garden Competition 2007. Winner Walsall in Bloom 2006. http://www.fourseasonsgarden.co.uk

This garden in Grove Park, Weston super Mare, North Somerset, England, taken in October 2005. It was created by Alan Titchmarsh and the Ground Force team in memory of Jill Dando.

source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16192695@N05/

Wilton House Gardens, near Salisbury in Wiltshire.

This structure is the world famous Palladian Bridge spanning the Nadder River. The 9th Earl of Pembroke, Henry Herbert, was an architect who built the Palladian Bridge in 1737.

I chose this angle of the bridge to show off the intricate stone carvings on the underside of the roof of the bridge. This is very easy to miss and I have no doubt that most visitors to Wilton House are completely unaware of it’s presence.

HDR image: 5D Canon, mounted on sturdy Manfrotto tripod and shutter release used. The sun was shining virtually right into the lens just to the left of the bridge. I had to wait until clouds covered over the sun enough to take batches of images. In this batch of images I took nine exposures but from these this HDR image was produced using six exposures. Processed in Photomatix Pro & Photoshop.

Copyright © 2007 f2 Photography

Please Note: This image may not be used for any purpose without written permission from F-2 Photography. You are NOT allowed to download, blog, print, broadcast, publish, use in a mosaic, use on a forum, distribute, change and/or manipulate this image for commercial, private or non-commercial reasons.