Fallodon Hall

Fallodon Hall is an early 18th-century house, much loved by Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary at the outbreak of World War I. Terracotta pots frame the doorway, giving onto a wide lawn, while steps lead into a sunken garden surrounded by mixed borders. Beyond the lake is the arboretum, near to the spot where Edward Grey is buried. The large walled garden, which dates from the 17th century, has an early heated wall and a greenhouse dominated by two old apricot trees.

Hetton House

The house was remodelled in the 18th century with a later wing for the kitchen. A square terrace has pots planted with Plectranthus and surrounding borders filled with roses, salvias, perovskia and dahlias. A white border runs along the front of the house into a vista through a square garden, the entrance guarded by a pair of Malus transitoria, past a Spring Garden and on beside a vegetable garden awash with sweet peas to the greenhouse.

Kirky Cottage

Some ten years ago, Ginny Fairfax, a skilled plantswoman, set about creating a new garden around her new house. The planting, now remarkably established, is informal and cottagey, with many of Ginny’s favourite plants from her previous garden. Cushions of lavender are interspersed with gravel planting of iris, salvias, violas and mallows growing in abundance amongst old roses.