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

Jason Goodwin and Simon Tiffin founded G&T Garden Tours to share their passion for the breathtaking gardens and landscapes of Dorset and Somerset.

A feature about G&T in The Wall Street Journal described Dorset as 'one of England’s hidden corners', and our Secret Garden Tour reveals gardens which are themselves hidden behind mellow walls, the grand and the small, gardens declamatory and gardens intimate, at a perfect moment in the year.

You'll stay in a luxurious historic house, the Old Rectory at Symondsbury, throughout your tour, so there's no packing and unpacking or hours on a bus. Days start at 10am, with a garden visit in the morning, lunch at some delicious local restaurant, an afternoon garden visit and home for tea.

Later, after drinks, you'll enjoy a delicious dinner prepared by Caroline, our in-house chef.

For 2027, G&T Garden Tours offers four exclusive English garden tours. Prices start at £5450pp (approx US$7200).

Each luxurious small-group tour, limited to around 14 guests, provides a rare opportunity to explore private gardens and the grand estates of England’s West Country.

The price of the tour includes your 6 night stay at Symondsbury Old Rectory, a spacious 300-year old Georgian house, as well as delicious teas and dinners prepared by Caroline Purchase, with cake from Dorset’s best 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. 

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PRICES ARE PER PERSON.

Arrive at Symondsbury Old Rectory for tea. We have time to unwind and enjoy the garden over drinks, before dinner is served.

Simon Tiffin and Jason Goodwin will set the scene with an introductory talk on the history and gardens of west Dorset.

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.

Jim Bartos is a native New Yorker and noted garden historian, formerly Chairman of the Board of the Gardens Trust. His exquisite gardens at the Old Rectory in Corscombe unfold with a magnificent interplay of exuberance and restraint. A succession of secret ‘rooms’, including one that takes its inspiration from Islamic tradition, epitomises the nature of this tour, full of horticultural surprise. The gardens overlook three counties, and Glastonbury Tor.

Chesil Beach, the most striking section of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, is the largest shingle ridge in the world. It’s a breathtaking spectacle, in one of Britain truly wild places, where the shingle is host to a dazzling wildflower display, including rock sea lavender, shrubby sea blite, sea beet and yellow horned poppy.

Here we’ll be guided by Fraser Christian, a professional forager, market gardener, fisherman, qualified chef and nutritionist, to help us explore the Chesil Beach.

After lunch at The Parlour, a foodie gem tucked away in a Bride Valley farmyard, we follow 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.

This morning we have an invitation to visit Little Benville, 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.

Jake Hobson has invited us to his exquisite and thoughtful Japanese garden, hidden in a Shaftesbury residential street. Afterwards, Jake will lead us to the HQ of fashionable and fabulously practical Niwaki tools, established by Jake right here in Dorset, and demonstrate their range of sharp, shiny stuff from Japan. From hori hori to secateurs, they have tools for every conceivable garden job, all beautifully made by Japanese craftsmen.

Next we head to the ancient town of Sherborne, where a delicious lunch at The Green is followed by a visit to the famous Abbey, a jewel of late mediaeval England. 

We return to the Rectory via Cerne Abbas, and its famous giant.

After tea at the Old 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.

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 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. 

Depart Symondsbury Old Rectory after breakfast.