Zeb is fond of gardens which allow well behaved dogs in on leads like Painswick Rococo Garden in Gloucestershire. Home of a zillion snowdrops for three precious weeks in February!

Garden History has become very popular in England since the 1970s and has gone hand in hand with the restoration of  many lost and overgrown gardens from the grand gardens at Hampton Court to this small 18th century hillside gem. The West of England is full of wonderful places to visit, (well England as a whole is stuffed with gardens but I thought I should plug my region here,)  and if you like a few follies thrown in with your herbaceous borders,  then this is the place to come.

This week the sun shone and we headed off to see the snowdrops which we missed last year. Painswick Rococo Garden is reputed to have one of the greatest collections of naturalistic plantings of this beautiful early flower in the country. As we drove home we saw more spreading over banks by the road. En masse they all look very similar, but there are different species and they are avidly collected by snowdrop fanciers.

It’s a lovely place for a wander in the summer too, with its espaliered apples, and traditional vegetable beds, friendly gardeners, and shady promenades, a perfect setting for a Jane Austen afternoon outing.

There is always a great cup of tea and a wodge of homemade cake at the end of your ramble.

We had a pot of Earl Grey and a shared slice of fresh coffee cake once we had clambered up the hillside past the Eagle House, having visited the Pigeonnier, looked into the clarity of the Plunge Pool, admired the vista from in front of the Exedra  and generally mooched about in this 18th Century Pleasure Garden.

All photos by Brian!