Visiting the garden at Baddesley Clinton

A view of the rose garden at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire, in early summer — The roses are looking beautiful in the summer sun | © National Trust/John Bayley

Over the years the garden at Baddesley has evolved into a mix of pleasure and production, with new areas being added all the time. Explore the woodland, walk around the lake or simply find a quiet seat and relax. The formal walled garden, with flower borders and fruit trees, makes a lovely contrast to the nature trail through the woods and around the fish pools.

Summer in the garden

Lift your spirits and enjoy the delights of summer in the garden here at Baddesley. Peonies and roses make our gardens the perfect place to take a leisurely stroll in the sun.

The wildflower meadow in the middle of the gardens is a haven of tranquility for bees and butterflies amidst beautiful wildflowers.

The walled garden is full of flowers in the summer, from perennial sweet peas and foxgloves in the box borders to the purple haze border which should be in full flower from August. The annual border will be looking its best in July with flowers in all colours including blue!

Our vegetable garden should be full, and cropping will be well underway with the produce going to the restaurant.

The recently restored vinery is now in use and we're growing crops which will also be used in our restaurant. The adjacent cut-flower borders not only look beautiful but provide flowers for us to decorate the house.

Two girls wearing wellies and raincoats running across the lawn in a walled garden with trees and a herbaceous border in the background — Children in the Walled Garden in July at Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire | © National Trust Images/Annapurna Mellor

The Courtyard Garden

Created in 1889, the Courtyard Garden is home to yews, lawns and brick paths that have little changed since creation. The main charge of the Ferrers’ arms (seven mascles, or lozenges) is laid out on the lawn and is planted in its gold and red heraldic colours. During the summer months hanging wisteria fills the courtyard with its heady scent.

The vegetable garden

Originally the medieval residents of Baddesley Clinton would have used the garden to provide food, with stewponds as a source of fresh fish. Nowadays gardeners work hard year-round to grow vegetables and herbs.

Over the winter of 2017-18 the team undertook the mammoth task of moving the vegetable garden from its old position, which had problems and wasn’t in the right place, to a new area which historical research revealed was the original site – much closer to the house and a much better place for a vegetable garden.

It’s now home to a new cut-flower border where the team are growing beautiful blooms to decorate the house, with some to be dried for decorations.

The walled garden

The walled garden was created in the early 18th century as an enclosed formal garden on the sunnier side of the house. Little survives of any early planting, as much of the garden was simplified from the 1920s onwards, but watercolours from 1915 show a traditional flower garden was in place. In the 1980s the sundial and formal rose beds around it were re-introduced and the traditional apple trees were planted.

The lake

In many ways the development of the lakeside walk is similar to that of the garden, from utilitarian beginnings to modest pleasure grounds. The great pool which forms part of the lakeside walk is thought to have once been a millpond, and also part of the fish-stocking process, alongside the medieval stewpond.