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 October

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 • October is a hectic month as Jane Moore finds herself addicted to tidying up: chopping, cutting back and mowing and keeping the compost heap well fed

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

Harvest Festival • In the golden rays of the early-morning sun, a gardener’s patience is rewarded at harvesting time. A simple pair of plant snips, a handwoven trug, and trusted cotton coat are not just practical tools but companions in the peaceful ritual of gathering the season’s treasure. Sophie Conran small harvesting basket, £20.49. Tel: 0114 2338262; burgonandball.com

Hyacinth Vases • It’s time to start forcing bulbs for Christmas and beyond, so make sure you pick a pretty vase to show them off. Natasha Goodfellow selects six of the best

Where the Magic HAPPENS • The Tom Stuart-Smith-designed Walled Garden at Broughton Grange in Oxfordshire is the centrepiece of a 25-acre garden that makes the most of its stupendous borrowed views, but its spell is cast across the wider garden in the colourful months of autumn

Play & DISPLAY • A quirky sense of fun and informality are order of the day at Corsley House in Wiltshire, where its owners’ ideas are transformed into a showcase of magical eclecticism by a talented team of gardeners

Times to Remember • The garden at 20 St Stephens Avenue in St Albans is overflowing with memories made by Heather Osborne and her late husband Peter. Specimen trees planted to commemorate births and deaths stud a richly artistic tapestry where every plant and design detail tells its own story

Himalayan HOMAGE • The Himalayan Sculpture Park and Garden in North Yorkshire is a modern take on the Victorian horticultural homage to the Himalayas. Begun in the 1990s with a focus on spring specialities, it’s now bursting with year-round colour thanks to carefully selected trees

Grass ROOTS • Over 30 years, Neil Lucas has been quietly effecting change through his use of grasses, love of wildlife and innovative way of cutting back perennials. The result is a textural dream of a landscape at Knoll Gardens in Dorset

BETTER BOUNDARIES • Learn how to make the most of your garden’s boundaries with expert advice on lighting, hedging and planting from designers Josh Parker and Matthew Butler

Jam Session • Tasked with invigorating the classical gardens at Weston House with a little rock and roll, maestro Anna Krapivina suggests ten plants to jazz up autumn

Dare to Go Bare • Denuded of foliage there’s something magical about the stark appearance of colchicums. In delicate shades of pink and white, these leafless lovelies bring welcome colour once summer is over

SOMETHING SPECIAL • A visit to Crûg Farm Plants in North West Wales is an exhilarating, at times humbling, experience even for seasoned plant collectors, thanks to introductions from around the world made by Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones

Get the Show on the Road • Can anything beat the anticipation of getting spring bulbs in the ground? Spend winter dreaming of the colour to come, with...