From rural cottage to grand estate, country gardens should be tailored to the house and landscape they occupy. Clare Foster talks to three garden designers about the elements that give a garden that all-important sense of place and we've included loads of inspiration to help you design your English country garden to perfection

Let’s take a stroll through some of our favorite country gardens over the years and see what makes them so inviting and carefree!

Thanks to some clever architectural additions and designer Rita Konig’s carefully considered interiors, this generous, sprawling 19th-century house now has a wonderful coherence while providing a series of distinct spaces for family life, work, relaxing and entertaining

This Cotswolds garden is a topiary dream world of hidden nooks and ravishing views.

If colour at home scares you, you might just have chromophobia. For those looking to move past it, Fiona McKenzie Johnston speaks to the experts to find out how

With its Robert Adam interiors and Capability Brown landscape, Bowood is the epitome of an eighteenth-century English country house, formed by the taste and vision of previous inhabitants and now adapting gently to the needs of the twenty-first century

Following the refurbishment of all internal rooms, these homeowners added a timber orangery extension to the rear elevation of their beautiful house.

Stunning Garden design project to re-structure the gardens surrounding a listed country house using sympathetic materials and planting styles.

Explore Mijkra's 102714 photos on Flickr!

The scale and proportion of this orangery are perfect for the house and ensures proportionally balanced and generous sized room for relaxing.

Many things can shape a city—its culture, history, social life, or food scene. But perhaps the most distinctive feature would be architecture. Some buildings can completely fascinate you with their astonishing design and pure aesthetics. Through careful urban planning and understanding of the cultural background, the structure of a city can carry you through time while still leaving you in a very particular place.

Welcoming the challenge of designing a garden for a thatched newbuild in the Cotswolds, Marcus Barnett created a series of terraces and paths that complement the undulating planting and carefully selected trees

The inhabitants of this home had a dream, to build a charming little house in the middle of the Spanish countryside, surrounded by nature.

Fácil imaginar una vida idílica tranquila en esta impresionante vivienda en la que una pareja danesa ha establecido su hogar tras dejar su apartamento en Copenhagen. Además de su entorno impresionante, cautivan sus interiores amplios y luminosos, diseñados con una base de blanco en el que cobran gran protagonismo las piezas de mobiliario en madera sin tratar que han sido cuidadosamente elegidas por su propietaria. Imágenes: fotografías de Pernille Kaalund para un reportaje de Bo Bodre

Within their smallholding on the Hampshire Downs, landscape architects Kim Wilkie and Pip Morrison have created an idyllic garden designed to be part of the wider picture, where wildlife, livestock and humans can exist harmoniously side by side in nature

Creative consultant Max Hurd’s London terrace is the perfect illustration of his eclectic influences, from Oscar Wilde to Verner Panton. The result is a flamboyant contemporary take on country-house style realised in collaboration with the designer Benedict Foley

Lush greenery, climbing ivy and gravel pathways are just some of our favorite English garden features.

Many things can shape a city—its culture, history, social life, or food scene. But perhaps the most distinctive feature would be architecture. Some buildings can completely fascinate you with their astonishing design and pure aesthetics. Through careful urban planning and understanding of the cultural background, the structure of a city can carry you through time while still leaving you in a very particular place.

The owners of this Thirties Georgian-style house were keen to give it an established look while avoiding any stuffiness. So they asked designer Henri Fitzwilliam-Lay to conjure distinctive interiors full of idiosyncratic details

Moving from an Irish castle to an ordinary 1930s house in a Worcestershire village posed some challenges for Farrow & Ball Brand Ambassador Patrick O'Donnell, but a judicious use of colour and a considered arrangement of art and furniture has produced an immensely appealing interior

Henriette von Stockhausen of VSP Interiors has taken a less-is-more approach to this country house by the sea, reflecting the owners' desire to live a simpler life

Since arriving just in time for Christmas two years ago, Jeremy Langmead and Simon Rayner have transformed their 17th-century Cumbrian farmhouse into an inviting rural bolthole, which strikes the perfect balance between artful restraint and festive cheer

Set against Simonsberg mountain, this South African wine estate required a similarly dramatic garden. Designer Franchesca Watson’s chic formal design, with its twist on traditional planting, is inspired

Décor Inspiration: Cordelia de Castellane’s Charming French Country Home - a bohemian eclectic mix of prints and patterns and toile de Jouy

When Karl Erik Halldén and his young family moved to Sweden’s Öland, they inherited a wooden 1920s gem of a house, full of decorative potential

With its singular interiors and extensive gardens and orchards, Somerset's The Newt reflects the vision of its owners, the South African founders of Cape Dutch hotel and farm Babylonstoren.

Penny Churchill casts her eye on a fine old rectory which has been beautifully restored — and shows exactly how the housing market has moved in the last three decades.

An English country house with bags of charm.

William Eubanks Memphis Tennessee English Country Manor Style Home Gardens Historic Climbing Roses Interior Design Chintz

Thomas Boog creates a weekend haven at his French country house in the Loire valley, mingling rarities of land and sea with antiques and contemporary craft.

Just a glance at the calendar tells us that summer is almost gone. “Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” ― Henry Ja…

Transforming an unruly garden was top priority for winemaker Ed Swift and his wife, Emily, at their country property in Orange, NSW.

Over the course of almost 50 years, Ian and Caroline Bond have created a beautiful Cotswold garden from scratch, in which mature trees and shrubs flourish alongside formal plantings and wildflower meadows.

Having found this tiny cottage in Oxfordshire five years ago, Victoria Barker has reversed the effects of a characterless renovation to create an irresistibly pretty interior

Having moved to this Herefordshire farm from London six years ago, its owners have made gentle interventions to create a house that feels well established

immaculately maintained cottage garden

The history of this house in Costa Brava, began in the 50s but it has been abandoned for the last 40 years. Owner and interior designer Eug...

See how this run-down cottage on a NSW farm was renovated into an elegant farmhouse, home to a large family.

Discover 2024's enchanting cottage garden ideas to bring timeless charm to your outdoor space. Start your transformation!

This is Villa Rauhanniemi, Joanna Laajisto's country home located in the south of Finland. Surrounded by nature and sheltered by trees, this beautiful

Our gallery of city gardens has plenty of ideas for designing an appealing outdoors space within the limits of the urban jungle, from compact seating areas to pretty planters, lush planting to elegant decking

With a brief to create a garden in the Italian countryside in tune with its surroundings, the designer Stuart Barfoot combined subtle landscaping with romantic plantings in a wildlife-rich scheme that captivates the senses.