Gardens Illustrated Magazine

Widely regarded as the Vogue of the gardening press, Gardens Illustrated aims to inspire you with an eclectic and international editorial mix of remarkable places, plants and people. With superb photography, authoritative journalism and exceptional design, this award-winning magazine is a style bible for garden designers, garden lovers and enthusiasts alike.

Welcome

Contributors

Gardens Illustrated Magazine

DIG IN • What’s new, what’s growing and what’s going on this month

TOO HOT TO HANDLE?

Lesson plans

HARMONIOUS SETTING

What to do this month

FAME OF THE ROSE

Outside interests

HOW WATER WORKS

3 FOR THE GARDEN…

September plants • As late summer begins to slide into early autumn, Dan Pearson enjoys rich colours from a giant salvia, a glorious geranium and a spectacular rose at his own Somerset garden

KITTED OUT • Add some extra kerb appeal to your home with these outdoor accessories

Growth experience • Nursery Antique Perennials has always been about introducing exciting plants to Australian gardeners, says co-founder Michael Morant, and now has a vibrant display garden to showcase its wares

GOLDEN TOUCH • Nigel Slater is developing a new recipe, but it is leaf mould made from fallen leaves that will be the main ingredient

HYLOTELEPHIUM • Formerly known as sedums, these drought-tolerant perennials offer long-lasting flowers in late summer and autumn, and are adored by bees and butterflies

How to grow Hylotelephium

HARRY BALDWIN • As head gardener at The Newt in Somerset, Harry is passionate about supporting new gardeners, and is drawn to gardens that embrace the wild

Cornish hideaway • Designer Matt Keightley has transformed a small plot of rough grass on the north Cornish coast into an elegant Mediterranean-inspired space for entertaining

Designing an awkwardly shaped space • Matt says that even if your garden looks like a cheese wedge, you can use the angles to your advantage. Follow his tips to make the most of your irregular-shaped outdoor space

First impressions • James Horner creates three eye-catching displays to bridge the gap between the warmth of late summer and the cooler autumn months

WIDE APPEAL • My first visit to Benton End was in September. That year, the summer had been relentlessly dry, yet out of the parched dusty ground peeked large clumps of Colchicum speciosum, both white and tessellated purples. This little chink of light from the past was all I needed to become captivated by the project of reviving plantsman Cedric Morris’s garden in Suffolk. The colchicums’ rich colour and generous goblet-shaped flowers form the focal point of this arrangement.

BOXING CLEVER • I found this metal box – once the frame of a car trailer – in the overgrowth within a walled garden I once renovated. I detached the wheel axle and have since used it as a raised bed-style planter. For this arrangement, without excesses of soil to fill the large volume and no intact walls remaining, I’ve set in typical medium-sized terracotta pots with a nest of branches and prunings from the garden. The result is a kind of hybrid planter-habitat pile.

BRING ME SUNSHINE • Sternbergia lutea is one of the most delightful surviving bulbs within the walled garden at Benton End. Hundreds still thrive since Cedric Morris planted them in the mid-20th century. Their long-lived success is a great example of growing the flora that best suits the existing conditions of your garden, which for us is a pairing of dry summers and a sandy loam soil. Prior to Benton End, I’d only seen them flowering beneath olive orchards in Tuscany.

EDUCATION OF A GARDENER • Designer Adam Woodruff reflects on his personal garden beside a New England harbour shaped by years...