Hidcote and Kiftsgate gardens have always been my big favourites.  I must have visited these wonderful garden at least ten times, but haven’t been for nearly TWENTY years.  In the interim they have been busy adding new gardens and vistas.  You can visit both in an afternoon with Kiftsgate opening at 11am and Hidcote not closing until 6pm.  They are virtually next door to each other.

I’ll never forget seeing the Hidcote red border (pictured above) for the first time in my mid-twenties.  The impact it made on me lives with me today.  Enclosed behind high hedges there is nothing to draw the eye away from the intensity of the colour schemes created.

Red is always the last colour to appear in quantity in the garden so it was no surprise that the red border was full of promise, but not full of colour.  All the rich golds and purples were still to show.  Lucky for us we could colour in most of the patches as we are familiar with the foliage on show!  Note the use of NZ red cabbage trees in the foreground.

What never fails to surprise me is the height they get in their borders.  And yet again I go home vowing to manure the garden to death with Tui sheep pellets and rich compost this winter.

I’ve told Phil he needs to retire real quick while he’s still strong enough to wheel a heavily laden wheelbarrow down to the bottom garden and back.  AND we need to get then digger in to deepen the pond!