Rackenford Manor

The garden at Rackenford Manor is in two halves. The first surrounds the house and is a gentle mix of good trees, interesting shrubs and open lawns. More formally, borders frame a lawn which runs down to a three-arched stone pavilion. In the perfectly maintained walled garden a brick-pillared pergola, thickly underplanted with perennials and smothered with vines, wisteria and climbing roses, leads past a circular pool and a wide border of Agapanthus to the working greenhouses on the north wall.

Plaz Metaxu

This is a garden of concepts and poetic symbolism, but, like Rousham, it is possible to enjoy the planting and the garden’s relationship with the surrounding landscape, particularly the valley, quite as much as the underlying meaning of the garden. The main part of the garden lies in the valley below the house, where the stream flows round a central lake and draws the visitor further into the garden and Alasdair Forbes’s classical world.