Summer is the perfect time for lazy strolls and gentle walks in National Trust gardens bursting with colourful planting.
Visitors can spend sunny days meandering along tree-lined paths, through formal gardens and historic parterres, or basking in the warmth of walled kitchen gardens. Shady orchards are home to heritage varieties of fruit trees, and informal wildflower meadows buzz with insect life.
Each garden is looked after by a team of the charity’s staff and volunteers and is planted to not only add colour and interest, but support wildlife too.
To celebrate the quiet, relaxing days of early summer, why not head to a National Trust garden in Norfolk.
Blickling Estate
The gardens at Blickling are stunning over the summer months. The Parterre was redesigned in the 1930s by Norah Lindsay, a renowned gardener and socialite, and the look and feel she created is still visible today.
Norah was attentive to colour, using it as a painter uses a palette. She established a magnificent display of herbaceous plants in graduated colours in the four large beds – from pink, blue, mauve and white nearer the house, to a concentration of yellows and oranges towards the east. Norah loved roses, and each of the main beds is encircled with colourful scented roses, a real seasonal highlight. In the shelter of the Parterre’s southern wall, the long border features more subtlety-coloured plants, providing a quieter backdrop to the main beds from June to September.
If you’re looking for welcome shade on sunny days, head up Temple Walk and into the wilderness. This area of the garden is more structured than its name suggests, with a geometric layout of trees, wild grasses and shaded pathways to wander through.
Look out for the garden team as they begin the annual task of trimming the ancient yew hedges, starting on the main drive in August before moving on to trim the acorns on the Parterre in September.
The Walled Garden really comes to life in July and August. A huge range of soft fruits and vegetables can be seen growing using the ‘no dig’ method of gardening – from strawberries and raspberries to onions, peas, beans, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, chillies, squashes, kale and potatoes. Flowers such as cat mint, sunflowers, oregano and verbena attract a range of pollinators, including bees from the hives in the orchard. With their bright, bold blooms in a range of colours, sizes and shapes, the dramatic collection of dahlias lights up the Walled Garden borders from August into the autumn.
After a walk around the gardens, head to the Stables café for refreshing drinks and light bites or to the shop, where plants inspired by Norah Lindsay can be purchased.
To find out more visit: nationaltrust.org.uk/blickling-estate
Felbrigg Hall, Gardens and Estate
Step into the Walled Garden at Felbrigg this summer and find it bursting at the seams with heady colour, fragrance and textures. As well as the double borders and trained fruit trees that it is renowned for, there are surprises around every corner, from resident animals to decorative metalwork blooms and beasties of all sizes.
Arranged in three parts, it is the Bacchus Garden that greets you with its climate resilient plantings, including fan palms and jewel-toned flowers edging the gravel paths. Step through brick arches and discover a lily pad studded pond at its centre – a haven for newts and dragonflies. The Octagonal Dovecote is one of the few working dovecotes in the country, dating from the early 1750s and still sheltering a flight of cooing doves.
The Kitchen Garden bulges with produce as vegetables including kale, leeks and rhubarb grow in neat rows, alongside abundant tangles of squashes and gourds decorating a metal arch to walk through. Fluffy-legged bantam chickens scratch about on pest control duty while bees buzz from their hives in The Enchanted Garden beyond, with its newly installed wide gravel paths winding around nut trees.
Beavering away in both the Walled Garden and the West Garden surrounding the hall, you’ll find the garden team weeding, dead-heading, tidying borders, grass cutting, cropping, re-sowing, planting and hedge trimming – but always happy to answer a question or offer a green fingered-tip. Peer through one of the glasshouses to see a succulent house being developed, with undulating mounds ready to be covered in all manner of rosette and irregular-shaped plants.
If you’re feeling inspired, there are plants for sale in the Stable Courtyard, where you’ll also find the Squire’s Pantry tea-room full of refreshments.
To find out more visit: nationaltrust.org.uk/felbrigg
Oxburgh Estate
Come and connect with the great outdoors and get up close to nature as you explore the gardens at Oxburgh Estate this summer.
Full to the brim with pollinator friendly perennials including scented heritage roses, and beautiful delphiniums, the Herbaceous Border is the perfect space for a quiet moment of contemplation whilst you indulge the senses in the sounds and smells of the season.
This year, the Kitchen Garden has been planted with seasonal produce mirroring its Victorian heyday as well as demonstrating the wonder of vertical growing in smaller spaces – chat to one of the garden team whilst you are visiting, and they will be delighted to share more about the ongoing restoration of this beautiful space. The heritage fruit trees in the Orchard also mirror those grown at Oxburgh in Tudor and Victorian times and provide a perfect spot for relaxation as the breeze and sunlight ripple through the branches.
Picnic blankets are available to borrow, deck chairs adorn the lawns, and both the Pantry Café and Servants Hall tearoom are open so you can grab lunch, an icy cold drink or an ice-cream to enjoy too!
To find out more visit: nationaltrust.org.uk/oxburgh
