Standen House, Sussex

Exploring Sussex gardens

Welcome to my blog where I hope to share with you my passion for visiting beautiful gardens.

Ever since I was a child I have loved exploring gardens and landscapes. It was whilst visiting National Trust properties with my grandparents when I was young that I first developed my love for designed exterior spaces... Although, I have to admit that a trip to the tearooms for some cake may have also influenced me!

Since those early visits garden design has taken over my life. I now run Borrowed Space Garden Design as my business and in my spare time I tend my own garden and take trips to inspirational outside spaces. Whenever I go on holiday I find I have to see what’s on offer in the local gardens and parks.

The beautiful garden of Standen

For my first blog entry I decided to share a trip to Standen, an arts and crafts house run by the National Trust in Sussex.

This is a great place for home garden inspiration. It is unusual in that it doesn't fall into the expected 'stately garden' category and has areas of the landscaping that would be quite at home in a more modest size space like a city garden.

Standen's arts and craft ethos of making things yourself has lots of parallels with the ‘grow you own’ trends of today. 

The garden is filled with practical space for growing vegetables and fruit. Check out the wigwams and the scarecrow; these are things that are easy to make at home... as well as looking fantastic they are practical too.

Verdict:

Inspirational garden for a person wanting to grow their own fruit or veg.

Worst bits: Some open areas of grass and shrubbery were pretty uninspiring.

Best Bits: Lots of different areas as you walk around and an interesting use of space. I will certainly be drawing on some of these ideas in my own designs.