Private Gardens in Warwickshire There is a strong gardening culture in Warwickshire. Gardening is a very popular recreation here. A number of private gardens are open to the public during the year as part of the National Gardens Scheme (Yellow Book). Full details: National Garden Scheme - Warwickshire Gardens. The pictures on this page present a selection of pictures of private gardens in Warwickshire. Some of these gardens may be open to the public. If you have a garden with some character, and would like it shown on this page, please E-mail me (John Webb) with a photo and a few details.

Berkswell and Balsall Common Several gardens in Berkswell and Balsall Common are opened under the National Gardens Scheme. Shown here is the garden of John Webb [no relation to the John Webb who runs the website].

Baginton This is the quite small but immaculate garden of a house in Baginton, open on the Baginton Open Gardens Day under the National Gardens Scheme.

Burton Green Moat Farm Moat Farm, dating from the 16th Century, has a particularly impressive garden, of spacious and well laid out perennials, and many old and shrub roses. More pictures of Moat Farm: Moat Farm

Long Meadow Farm Long Meadow Farm is another property with spacious lawns and herbaceous borders. The farm has a nice duck pond near the entrance.

A particulary impressive feature at Long Meadow Farm is the view looking in the direction of Kenilworth. You can clearly see Kenilworth Castle, and the spire of St John's Church at the far end of Kenilworth, and the landscape beyond Kenilworth, roughly as far as Chesterton, about 18 miles away. This is effectively a view across the valley of the Avon, from the high point on the North-West side, to the high point on the South-East side.

Rosemary Cottage Rosemary Cottage has a distinctive naturalistic garden. The main garden is filled with tall native flowers. And the garden has a wildlife pond, and areas of tall grasses, with wild flowers in them.

Maxstoke Castle One of the most impressive private homes in Warwickshire is Maxstoke Castle. The castle was constructed, as a fortified manor house, with a moat, in 1345. The castle grounds and gardens are open to the public on 1 day each year under the National Gardens Scheme.
There is a large grassed courtyard within the castle. This picture shows typical borders around the courtyard perimeter.
The Castle is approached along an impressive wooded avenue. In this picture the castle's owners, Michael and Rosemary Fetherston-Dilke, are welcoming visitors on the garden's Open Day.

Hickecroft, Rowington Hickecroft is a fine old house and garden, in the style of Packwood House (see further down below), opened 1 day a year under the National Gardens Scheme.

	Hobbiton This is the garden of Mr Bilbo Baggins, and his nephew Frodo. The garden is in typical hobbit style, with native flowers nestling around the hobbit hole, with its round door and windows, set in a grassy bank.
	The flowers crowd together in a haphazard way. Foxgloves predominate. The grass "lawn" is slightly unkempt, and littered with wild flowers.
	Bilbo's garden includes a carved life-size image of his friend Gandalf. This is a garden which everyone stops to see, and most people immediately recognise whose garden it is.
	Bilbo's garden was designed by David Fountain, and Kim Wilde, for the Gardeners World Live exhibition, held at the NEC. This garden has since been rebuilt, in a natural hillside, for a children's hospice in Essex (details on David Fountain's website: Gardens for Kids).

Hidcote Manor and Kiftsgate Court Nine miles South of Stratford, near the village of Mickleton, and within a mile of each other, are two of the best gardens in England, Hidcote Manor (shown left) and Kiftsgate Court. Click on the links for more pictures.

Coughton Court Coughton Court is another National Trust property with superb gardens, just North of Alcester.

Packwood House and Baddesley Clinton Packwood House (shown here) and Baddesley Clinton are two superb National Trust properties with fine gardens, in the heart of Arden country. The garden at Packwood House incorporates unusual, possibly unique, religious symbolism. Click on the links for more pictures.

The Shakespeare Properties There are several interesting gardens, maintained by the The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, particularly those at Hall's Croft, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, and Mary Arden's House. The gardens at the Shakespeare properties are more than scenic additions to the houses. Shakespeare left Stratford sometime in his early twenties, and spent his productive writing years working from lodgings, often in London. But how he wrote was influenced by what he'd experienced during his formative years, living here. Caroline Spurgeon's Shakespeare's Imagery tells us: Each writer has a certain range of images which are characterisitc of him and that he has a marked tendency to use. One interest above all others stands out in Shakespeare's imagery. One occupation, one point of view, above all others, is naturally his; that of a gardener. All through his plays he thinks most readily of human life and actions in terms of a gardener. Some gardening similies are of common Elizabethan stock, but Shakespeare has a great many more than other writers. There is practically no first hand gardening knowledge in the images of other writers. There is not in any other dramatist any single image of frost and sharp winds nipping buds which is so common in Shakespeare, and not a trace of the care for the plant which is so common with him. In Richard III, the number of tree and garden images is unusual even for Shakespeare, and the Royal house is definitely thought of as a tree. The repeated use of the verbs plant, pluck, crop, wither, as applied to the Royal house, shows how continually this picture of a garden is in Shakespeare's mind. More pictures: Mary Arden's House Anne Hathaway's Cottage

My Garden Foxgloves, in my own garden.

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