Barnsdale Gardens & Easton Walled Gardens

Set in the heart of the beautiful Rutland countryside, Barnsdale is home to Britain's largest collection of individually designed gardens. There are 38 plots on a site covering 8 acres ranging in style from traditional cottage plantings to modern gardens, allotments, woodlands and formal ponds and have been likened to a ‘theme park for gardeners’.

The Gardens were designed by Geoff Hamilton, who presented BBC Gardener's World from 1979 until his death in 1996. Hamilton was interested in making gardening affordable by offering practical ideas for gardeners to recreate at home and encouraging the inventive reuse of materials.

Barnsdale Tea Rooms serve coffee and cakes and light lunches, all freshly produced to order and, wherever possible, sourced locally.

There is a small gift shop and a large nursery with a wide variety of high quality plants, including more unusual and rare species, that are all propagated from the gardens.

Easton Walled Gardens were abandoned in 1951 when, Easton Hall was demolished after years of neglect.  Renovation work on the 12 acres of gardens began in 2001 after 50 years of neglect.  Built on a beautiful natural site the gardens are now resuming their 400 year old splendour.  There are lovely views from the terraces looking down towards the river.  Our visit has been planned to take place during the height of the Sweet Pea season, when we will be able to see up to 100 different varieties.  The 80m long border will also be looking good at this time of the year with repeated plantings of catmint, bamboo and roses interspersed with a variety of perennials such as Phlox ‘Fujiyama’ and pockets of annuals. Other attractions are the restored Yew tunnel, cottage garden, the velvet border, woodland walk, turf maze and two glasshouses.

The tearoom serves light lunches including homemade soup (using local produce) jacket potatoes, gardener’s lunch, baguettes and salads for lunch and cakes and scones for tea.

The shop stocks seasonal gardening gifts and Easton’s own range of sweet pea seed. The courtyard outside the main shop includes a select range of plants, including David Austin Roses and with over 60 varieties of roses in the gardens you can see them before you buy.

For information about accessibility, please contact tickets@cambridgelivetrust.co.uk or the Botanic Gardens directly.