How to spend a gardener’s weekend in…
The Lake District
England’s largest National Park is best known for its fells, lakes and hiking trails, but with several outstanding gardens, shops and eateries, it also offers more sedate pleasures
Insider tips
Best breakfast or lunch Yew Tree Barn
Best village for gastronomy Cartmel
Best bluebells Rusland Valley
Best plant nursery Abi & Tom’s Garden Plants
Best farm shop Low Sizergh Barn
Despite its quantity of visitors, there is a stillness to the Lake District that prevails, at least at dawn and dusk. Writing from Dove Cottage on 17 May, 1800, Dorothy Wordsworth noted: ‘Grasmere was very solemn in the last glimpse of twilight; it calls home the heart to quietness.’ The meditative pull of water, mountains and woods is now more valued than ever.
English pastoral
Miss Wordsworth was a keen gardener, and the steep bit of land behind Dove Cottage, which she shared with her brother William, was a microcosm of the wider landscape.
Recently restored (and renamed Wordsworth Grasmere), the cottage is an essential stop, as is Beatrix Potter’s farmhouse at Hill Top. Both give some insight into traditional life and the importance of this area as a managed landscape, dominated by sheep farming (as described in James Rebanks’ best-selling English Pastoral). Another visionary, John Ruskin, made his final home and garden at Brantwood, on the shores of Coniston Water, accessible by boat.
Near the east shore of Windermere, Blackwell is a notable Arts and Crafts house, while Rydal Hall boasts a 17th-century viewing platform over a waterfall, fondly called the Grot.
Excursions and provisions
The landscape between Coniston Water (including Ruskin’s house) and the southwestern shores of Windermere makes excellent walking.
In May, the restored and newly created trails of Rusland Valley lead through acres of undisturbed bluebells in traditionally managed woodland. Further south, the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is the place for wildflower and butterfly spotting.
Levens Hall is justly famous for its 18th-century topiaries, but it also has a deer park that was laid out at the same time. Another feature, for hungry walkers, is the Kitchen café, (and the Goat Shed for takeaways).
Amid the formal splendour of Holker Hall and its park, good food also awaits, with a click-and-collect service for the best local produce (A Day’s Walk), as well as Holker’s own food hall and Courtyard Café.
Grand tour
Somewhat further north, the Lowther estate has turned its ruined castle into the focal point for gardens that are slowly yet dramatically evolving. Benefitting from a 20-year landscape masterplan by Dan Pearson, the latest addition at Lowther Castle is a Sleeping Beauty-inspired rose garden. Morecambe Bay, back in the southern part of Cumbria, has a microclimate that allows the growing of exotics at Yewbarrow, giving it an adventurous outlook, including its trial beds, olive grove, Italian garden and more. Nearby, the Grange Plant Centre is one of two locations for Abi & Tom’s Garden Plants, this one specialising in pot displays as well as a wide selection of the home-grown hardy herbaceous perennials for which they are known – and which can be appreciated in designed beds at their headquarters, Halecat Nursery, on the Witherslack Estate.
Dry goods and perishables.
To the northwest of Kemble, Inglefield Speciality Plants comes generously recommended by Tom Attwood of Abi & Tom’s. The Speciality is partly about scale and impact, with large specimen plants and trees, outsized containers and statuary. Yew Tree Barn takes this a step further with upscale garden reclamation (as well as quality food at Harry’s Café Bar). Nearby Cartmel is known for its independent shops with a leaning towards food, while Armstrong Ward, o the high street in Kendal, requires extra time for browsing. Notable food is never far away; stop at Kendal’s inspiring deli, Baba Ganoush. On the road south towards Levens Hall, the National Trust offers more walking, naturewatching, and an immaculate castle at Sizergh, while nearby Low Sizergh Barn is a dream of a farm shop and dairy, specialising in raw milk.