The Old Hall, Market Overton

The garden is entered by a low door in a wall flanked by a fig and a Garrya. Wisteria, Parthenocissus henryana and Magnolia grandiflora riot over the house walls. The garden drops away, giving a long view over the Rutland countryside, with steps to a terrace where two Pinus densiflora ‘Umbraculifera’ are planted to frame steps to the third terrace with a long border of Rosa ‘The Fairy’. Before the garden merges with the landscape, there is a final flourish of formality with a border divided by giant yew buttresses.

Stoke Albany House, Stoke Albany

The elegant 1830s house stands in ten acres of garden. From the terrace, a long herbaceous border flanks a lawn which merges into a woodland garden, planted with fine trees. An archway in a yew hedge leads to a walled garden containing a potager with topiary, a grey garden, an avenue of Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ arched with ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ roses and a beautifully maintained greenhouse.

Prebendal House, Empingham

This remarkable garden was recently redesigned by Pip Morrison. A lawn, flanked by perennial borders, leads past a white garden into a walled garden where Phillyrea angustifolia divides the space between cut flowers and vegetables. A vista runs from a spectacular glasshouse, through an orchard, to wrought-iron gates which give a view of the parkland and open country. Outside the walled garden, a canal-shaped swimming pool lies in front of a grand stone pavilion.

Photography by Anna Omiotek-Tott