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 unfold around an old Dorset rectory 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. A short sharp walk up the hill behind the gardens reveals a view that overlooks three counties and Glastonbury Tor.

Scarcely 2 miles from the Rectory at Symondsbury, the famous gardens at Chideock Manor were summed up by Country Life magazine as 'beauty and tranquillity combined'. The magnificent gardens extend to 12 acres, both formal and informal, with walks of yew and lime, a santolina parterre with views of the lake and hills, and a profusion of planting in ponds, streams and woodland, including a show-stopping gunnera. 

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.

In the morning we leave Symondsbury to visit the nearby village of Stoke Abbott, one of the most magical and secluded villages in Dorset. 'A scene of gentle abundance', according to House & Garden, reveals itself as we step into the charming gardens at Manor Farm, Simon Tiffin’s own home.

After a picnic in the orchard, we have an invitation to Chilcombe. Created by the artist John Hubbard and his wife Caryl, and justly compared to Sissinghurst and Hidcote, the garden at Chilcombe is a paradise in every sense, composed of linked enclosures all hidden away in the hills behind Chesil Beach. The main walled garden is divided into a series of rooms by pleached apple trees and sculpted yew hedges. Each of these intimate spaces invites you to stop and admire the plantsmanship and love that went in to its creation.

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.