by Sally Gregson

Binham Grange Garden

It’s hard to believe that Stewart and Marie Thomas moved into the Jacobean house that is Binham Grange Hotel only four years ago. When they arrived the garden was full of ant hills, Leyland cypress, and dead elms. In that short space of time they have built a walled garden, created a box-edged parterre and added a pergola. They grow vegetables for the kitchen and cut-flowers for the house, and on the adjoining farm, Holstein Friesian cattle produce Binham Grange’s own milk, butter and cheese.

The garden is planted to welcome and inspire their guests throughout the year, and in October the kitchen beds are burgeoning with aubergines and peppers, while the flower garden is still autumn-warm with dahlias, rudbeckias and late roses in this near frost-free climate. Lacquer-red acers, liquidambar and red and yellow-fruited crab apples celebrate the season; and migrating birds, egrets and otters are often spotted tumbling in the estuary beyond.

Location:  Old Cleeve, Minehead TA24 6HX. Four miles east of Dunster. Take A39 for Minehead, turn right at crossroads after Washford to Blue Anchor, past Old Cleeve. Garden on left.
For admission prices and opening times, please check with the garden direct.
Telephone: Stewart and Marie Thomas, 01984 640056

Lift the Latch

Private gardens that are open for the National Gardens Scheme after the end of September are rare, but ‘Lift the Latch’ is a very special example. Pauline Wright has planted the garden to peak in the spring, and again in autumn. And the result speaks for itself.

Forty Japanese Acers; sumach (Rhus typhinus); and Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ create a purple, scarlet and gold tapestry, while the falling leaves of Cercidiphyllum japonicum permeate the whole garden with the sweet scent of burnt toffee. Autumn-red Hydrangea ‘Preziosa’, Nandina domestica ‘Fire Power’, and golden berberis set off the blue-and-white flowers of Geranium ‘Rozanne’. And apricot heucheras highlight the richly sombre tones of Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’.

Then when autumn is burnt out and over, the winter is a symphony of evergreens and golds that resolve into the spectacle of spring. This really is a garden for all seasons.

Location:  Blacklands Lane, Forton, Chard TA20 2NF. Just over a mile south of Chard, signed in Forton village. Blacklands Lane is off B3162 at the east end of Forton. Parking at Alpine Grove Touring Park.
For admission prices and opening times, please check with the garden direct.
Telephone: Pauline & David Wright 01460 64752

Tintinhull Garden

Tintinhull is a very special example of early 20th century gardens that were created and planted by that famous group of friends and gardeners that included Lawrence Johnston at Hidcote and Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst.

Phyllis Rice, a friend of Johnston’s, built Tintinhull in the same style, with garden rooms, in 1933, but on a smaller scale. The plantsman, the late Graham Stuart Thomas, considered it to be essentially ‘inward looking and enclosed’. There are no wide vistas to lift the gaze and interrupt the visual peace. There is just the tranquillity of secluded lawns, the Pool Garden, and relaxed, colour-themed planting. In early autumn the annuals: the sunflowers, antirrhinums and salvias add to the colour of the asters, dahlias and crocosmias. And the kitchen garden is bountiful with pumpkins, squashes, marrows and beans. It’s a garden for a golden October afternoon.

Location:  Farm Street, Tintinhull, Yeovil, BA22 8PZ. Five miles north-west of Yeovil in Tintinhull village. Signed from A303.
For admission prices and opening times, please check with the garden direct.
Telephone: National Trust, 01935 823289
Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk