SECRET GARDEN TOUR
A journey through manor houses and cottage gardens, set against the inspiring landscapes of West Dorset and Somerset.
Friday 28th May - Thursday 3rd June 2027
In a recent interview for G&T with The Financial Times, Jason spoke of the ‘enfolding secrecy’ of the region, ‘an extension of the very idea of a garden, a paradise, a refuge in a turbulent world.’ Dorset remains one of England’s hidden corners, and is the only county without a motorway.
We added our Secret Garden Tour in 2025, by popular request, when we realised how many Dorset, Somerset and Devon gardens we still needed to see, frequently hidden behind mellow walls: the grand and the small, gardens declamatory and gardens intimate, at a perfect moment in the year. It is a gardener’s garden tour, with a focus on design and plantsmanship. Now it is a fixture of our June calendar, and we invite you to come along with us.
The price of the tour includes your 6 night stay at The Old Rectory, Symondsbury, as well as delicious teas and dinners prepared by Caroline, with help from Dorset’s best cake baker, Haley. As usual we will be lunching at a variety of our favourite restaurants in this beautiful corner of south-west England. It’s all included.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TOUR INCLUDE:
Invitation to one of Veranda Magazine’s “World’s Most Beautiful Gardens” award winner
A private visit an Arne Maynard designed garden, with a picnic
A morning with Japanese garden tool guru, Jake Hobson
Flora Roberts’ botanical masterclass
Award-winning restaurants, Lyme Regis, and glorious countryside
A private garden hosting a holy spring and 2000 year old sacred yew
Notable private gardens at their peak
Saturday 29th May
Buffy Sacher planned her garden on the slopes of the hillfort at South Eggardon to incorporate its sacred springs and the magnificent 2000 year old yew tree, 24’ round at its narrowest point.
With far-reaching views out over the Asker valley, threaded by chalk streams running to a landscaped lake, this is a stunning garden that takes full advantage of its ancient setting.
Lunch is at the award-winning Brassica in the peaceful little town of Beaminster.
Sunday 30th May
Scarcely 2 miles from the Rectory at Symondsbury, summed up by Country Life magazine as ‘beauty and tranquillity combined’, the gardens at Chideock Manor extend to 12 acres, both formal and informal, with walks of yew and lime, a santolina parterre with views of the lake and hills, and a profusion of planting in ponds, streams and woodland, including a magnificent gunnera.
After lunch at The Parlour, a foodie gem tucked away in a Bride Valley farmyard, we continue up the valley to visit a mellow old brick-walled garden by the source of the river. Here the largely perennial borders are arranged in ‘rooms’, laid out in a lovely tumble of naturalised planting down the south-facing slope, together with potager vegetable areas and a large lavender border. The sheltered garden is famous for a profusion of scented roses along the edge of the gin-clear stream which glides through the garden.
After tea at the Rectory, we’re thrilled to have Dorset’s renowned flower painter, Flora Roberts, give us a masterclass in botanical illustration. Inspired by historic textiles and paintings, Flora’s work features in murals, wallpaper and interior textiles, and is always informed by sensitive observation of the flowers in her own garden.
Curious what you’ll see? Read our Dorset garden guide.
Monday 31st May
“This garden blew me away,” said Veranda’s judge, awarding it the top prize – so see if you agree when we take up an invitation to visit a thrilling contemporary garden with design features by Harris Bugg Studio, winners of the Gold and Best in Show at Chelsea in 2023, the go-to new kids on the horticultural block.
Set in a historic landscape – mentioned in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbevilles – Little Benville boasts magnificent herbaceous borders, woodland planting, a walled vegetable and cutting garden, cloud pruned topiary, a ha-ha, ornamental and productive trees and a moat which is a listed Ancient Monument.
Lunch is at the 16th century Acorn Inn, in the stunning and filmic village of Evershot.
In the afternoon we have a private invitation to visit Wall, the remote and romantic home of artist Annie Roberts and her husband, Johnnie. This is the latest in a succession of beautiful gardens Annie has made, with her signature Rosa Rugosa hedging and deep herbaceous borders.
Tuesday 1st June
In the morning we leave Symondsbury to visit the nearby village of Stoke Abbott, one of the most magical and secluded villages in Dorset. ‘A scene of gentle abundance’, according to House & Garden, reveals itself as we step into the charming gardens at Manor Farm, Simon Tiffin’s own home.
After a picnic in the orchard, we have an invitation to Chilcombe. Created by the artist John Hubbard and his wife Caryl, and justly compared to Sissinghurst and Hidcote, the garden at Chilcombe is a paradise in every sense, composed of linked enclosures all hidden away in the hills behind Chesil Beach. The main walled garden is divided into a series of rooms by pleached apple trees and sculpted yew hedges. Each of these intimate spaces invites you to stop and admire the plantsmanship and love that went in to its creation.
Wednesday 2nd June
This morning we head to a garden located in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the West Country, Devon’s Blackdown Hills.
The stunning garden, surrounding medieval South Wood Farm, was first conceived by Professor Clive Potter, with the designer Arne Maynard helping him bring the garden together into a cohesive design. The result, in its owner’s words, is ‘a garden that slowly melts into the landscape’, in perfect harmony with its surrounding landscape and the medieval building at its centre.
We will enjoy a splendid picnic lunch, prepared for us by our chef, in the grounds at South Wood.
After lunch, a chance to explore the thirteen acre gardens at Burrow Farm, gradually created by John and Mary Benger since they came to the dairy farm in 1959, taking advantage of sweeping country views, an abandoned clay pit and their interest in unusual trees and shrubs.
Thursday 3rd June
All good things must end, so after breakfast we leave Symondsbury Rectory, bidding a fond farewell to Dorset – perhaps, like so many G&T Gardeners, vowing to return with G&T here, or to the Cotswolds!
Those travelling on by rail will be taken to meet a late morning train at Dorchester South.
