Kiftsgate Court Gardens

Kiftsgate is a family home with the most wonderful gardens. In 2000 the run-down tennis court was converted into a water garden, very modern in design with no plants. Simon Allison designed the elegant fountain with stainless steel stems topped with gilded bronze leaves that reflect well in the black water. The garden is planted to reveal something to see at any time of the year. In spring we look forward to the freshness of the new growth at the start of each season. Both pink and white magnolias produce the first big splash of colour and bulbs and early perennials such as anemones and trilliums provide the harmonies in the borders.

As summer gets going, peonies, roses, geraniums and hundreds of other shrubs and perennials burst into flower. Nothing in the garden ever stands still and is always evolving and changing. This is what makes it such fun to be able to revisit throughout the year and see a completely different aspect of this most striking of gardens.

Recent introductions include the wild garden, mound, orchard and avenue where you’ll find a perennial wild garden, newly planted fruit trees, and a horseshoe-shaped mound created from the thousand tons of soil removed when the new water garden was created for the millennium. The avenue has been planted with tulip trees and leads up to a sculpture that was designed and made by Pete Moorhouse.

Nothing in the garden ever stands still and is always evolving and changing. This is what makes it such fun to be able to revisit throughout the year and see a completely different aspect of this most striking of gardens.