Summer in Berrington's walled garden and pleasure grounds

Come to Berrington to discover Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s final design; our walled garden and pleasure grounds, this summer.

The garden and pleasure grounds are ideal for a simple stroll with well gravelled footpaths and plants to discover. They are the perfect spot for a break away from the screen.

There are plenty of flowers, herbs and colours to enjoy as we grow various different plants. From Dahlia’s to Rose’s or mint, there is something for everyone. We even have a vegetable patch from which we take fresh produce to use in the tea-room.

When the old plan of the estate was discovered with beds planted in chevron and diagonal lines our gardeners started to recreate this planting pattern. The seasonal bed divided into smaller squares and diamonds edged with lots of herbs, which the cafe use regularly.

We also have our installation, ‘LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!’ by Heather and Ivan Morison in the centre of the walled garden. This piece has been created with the eighteenth century origins of Berrington in mind, as well as the Georgian’s love of ‘eye-catchers’ in their gardens.

This part of eighteenth century culture inspired the artists to design ‘LOOK!’ as a contemporary pavilion. To enxourage visitors to enjoy this space as the Georgians would have done, we have developed a programme of summer events take place within it.

As well as the 'LOOK!' pavilion, you can find even more art in our gardens from 11 July 2018 throughout the summer. This comes with a new exhibition, 'Patina' by the Hereford College of Arts. This collaboration with the Hereford College of Arts is part of our 'Walled Garden and Pleasure Ground Project'.

This is so that we can see how people can use this space in a creative way that connects to people from all walks of life. To this we have been working select students to develop their own artwork in response to Berrington’s walled garden and its history.

With the volunteers working throughout the year there is always something happening in the gardens. We have volunteers come and help us to ensure that the gardens are well maintained. There are about 15 garden volunteers working at Berrington.

Our Garden Volunteer Clair Boyd said, ‘We do help each other out across the Orchard with pruning in January/February of each year. But for special projects but our last Head gardener allowed us to develop by following our interests and skills.’ The plan follows a rotational planting system each year and successional sowing, with an emphasis on Companion planting as the Trust follows organic principles.

The development of these gardens however is all thanks to the support of our visitors. Thanks to you all of the money we raise is going towards our ‘Walled Garden and Pleasure Grounds Restoration Project’, which is a new project designed to conserve and preserve these precious gardens.

The project is also hoping to develop this rare garden and reinstate it to how 'Capability' Brown intended. This is because it is both unique, due to Brown's designs of the shape of the garden, and it is in desperate need of conservation on the 300 year old bricks that make up the structure. Why not have a look at the visuals of how the project hopes to reinstate Berrington's eighteenth century layout and style.

With all of this in mind, why not come along this summer to see all of the life that is happening here at Berrington?