Monthly Archives: July 2019

Beaudesert: “a desert beautified”

Posted on 27/07/2019 by The Gardens Trust

Beaudesert is/was  an enormous estate in Staffordshire’, its name probably coming from the French for  the surrounding landscape – “beautiful wilderness”.  It has a reasonably well recorded architectural and contents history up to the demolition of the great Elizabethan mansion … Continue reading →

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Hard or Soft?

Posted on 20/07/2019 by The Gardens Trust

No I’m not talking about how you like boiled eggs [or even Brexit] but one of the great debates in the history of garden design which has been between the relative importance of the hard landscaping of architects and the … Continue reading →

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The History of Hosepipe

Posted on 13/07/2019 by The Gardens Trust

I was sitting in the garden a while back enjoying the weather and discussing politics with a group of family and friends when the subject of a piece in a well-known newspaper came up and my niece said  to my … Continue reading →

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Burchell at the Cape

Posted on 06/07/2019 by The Gardens Trust

The last post looked at William Burchell, the son of a London nurseryman who after emigrating to St Helena in 1805, began the process of cataloguing its flora and fauna and setting up a botanic garden. Frustrated by the attitude … Continue reading →

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