Guided Garden Tours in Kent and Sussex

Garden Tours
Kent Sussex and Surrey have a remarkable wealth of gardens of every style and design to suit everyone. Some are of world renown, others less well known but well worth seeking out as there are many hidden gems to be found amongst them. Here's a flavour.

Sissinghurst Castle was once a mansion which was derelict until rescued in 1930 by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. The garden features Tudor buildings and an Elizabethan prospect tower with two turrets. The view from the roof is one of the best in southern England. Sissinghurst Castle is now run by the National Trust

Pashley Manor is a quintessential English garden located on the Sussex and Kent border in the heart of South East England’s garden country. Pashley offers a splendid blend of romantic landscaping, inspired plantings and excellent old trees, fountains, springs and large ponds.

Great Dixter, Northiam.
The Manor House at Great Dixter is first recorded in 1220, but the present building is much later created from three houses between the mid 15th century with additions completed as recently as 1912. Nathaniel Lloyd bought Dixter and its grounds in 1910 and shortly after employed English architect Edwin Lutyens to restore the house and design the gardens. Christopher Lloyd the plantsman and gardening writer, was born at Great Dixter.On completion of his education Christopher Lloyd returned to Great Dixter permanently in 1954, when he opened the gardens to the public and began running it as a nursery, the garden became his lifelong passion until his death in 2006. One of the pleasurable features about the gardens at Great Dixter is that they lie all around the house, make a circuit of the gardens and you have made a circuit of the house exteriorThese cottage gardens are on a grand scale, Lutyens designed the gardens as a series of rooms, expertly incorporating farm buildings, linking house to garden and giving the whole a comfortable feel, providing a perfect setting for Christopher Lloyds talents.

Near Tonbridge in Kent, Marle Place is a peaceful, privately owned Wealden garden, ten acres of formal planting and many more acres of woodland and orchard. Situated close to Scotney and Sissinghurst Castles. Winner of the Kent Wildlife Gardens Gold Award 2009, given by Kent Wildlife Trust.

Polesden Lacey, Surrey.
The early history of the house extends back to playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan who lived in a much loved country mansion on the site in the 17th century. Mrs. Greville and her husband the captain the Hon. Ronald Greville bought the Polesden estate in 1906 and commissioned Mewes and Davis the architects of the Ritz Hotel, to convert it into a house fit for royalty, namely Edward VII.
The fact that we are free to visit this beautiful estate today is due to the bounteousness of Mrs. Ronald Greville. Mrs. Greville's life involved a great deal of travel and entertaining the rich and famous including royalty, which she did very successfully for over 30 years. On her death in 1942 she bequeathed Polesden and her art collections to the National Trust, with the proviso that it should be open to the public at all times and her possessions placed on enduring display.

Doddington Place.
West of Faversham A 10 acre landscaped garden, created by William Nesfield, in an area of outstanding natural beauty.The woodland garden has character with good views, formal terraces, an Edwardian rock garden, excellent trees and lawns, impressive yew hedges and a folly. Set in the heart of the Kent and surrounding a 17th century house, Great Comp Garden is the charming creation of Roderick and Joy Cameron, their having moved to Great Comp in 1957.
The garden has been developed with the aim of providing interest throughout the year from an increasingly varied plant collection.
At Yalding Gardens, fourteen delightful garden 'rooms' allow you to trace the history of English gardening from medieval times to the present. Pursue the footsteps of Jane Austen in the fourteen acres of grounds at Goodnestone Park or marvel at the National Pine collection at Bedgebury Pinetum. The gardens at Mount Ehpraim offer an enchanting mix of styles, including a Japanese rock garden.

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