Facilities: 

Contact: Kathy Brown   Telephone: 01234 822064

Postcode: MK43 7QB
Location: 5m NW of Bedford.  Off A428 through Bromham
click here for a map

Opening dates and times: Sun 14 Feb (12-4). Evening Opening wine, Wed 16 June (6-9).

Admission: Adm £4.50, chd free

Website: www.kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com

Description: A modern country garden with unusual twists, designed and cared for by owners Simon & Kathy Brown. Cottage garden, edible flower border, formal parterres, wild flower meadow, and major container displays offer contrasting areas of interest along with several ornamental grass borders each drawing inspiration from different artists
Children's dance performance and other works based on vists to the garden by Lincroft School. Garden Games
In the press: Featured in Country Homes & Interiors (Feb) & Homes & Gardens (May)

Further details:Winter opening. Enjoy the romance of our winter winding walk with its filigree weeping birches, early bulbs and shiny cornus. Pines and eucalypts add further colour and texture, along with golden ‘firework’ willows. Elsewhere, glades of white stemmed birches look ghostly in the low light of winter whilst borders of pale grasses offer a more delicate touch. For more information with plan and map see www.kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com Summer evening opening. Rambling and climbing roses clothe the pergolas, trees and walls, followed by an array of late flowering clematis. All vie for space in this modern country garden designed and cared for by owners Simon and Kathy Brown. Now 15 years old, the French garden looks very established with its yew and box topiary and spires of hornbeam. The view from the top terrace reveals the twelve jurors which sit either side the box parterres depicting the court scene from Nicholas Foquet's trial in 1661, inspired by Vaux le Vicomte. Eight arches form a parallel garden of laburnums, wisteria, robinia, honeysuckle, clematis and roses underplanted with iris, alliums and poppies and a forest of white Japanese anemones. The old fish pond has been transformed by an impressive collection of containers with dark black aeoniums, agaves, and other wonderful succulents interspersed with cannas, fuchsias, and begonias. As the summer progresses vivid blues, yellows and oranges vie for attention, on ladders, sleepers etc. As you peer into the depths, it has the feeling of Kandinsky's Improvisation Gorge. Gravel gardens: Twelve years ago we planted an avenue of white stemmed birches which now shine out with their gleaming bark. They lead to an ellipse of gravel planting all backed by dark purple beech. Stipas, perovskias, sea holly, fennel, tall verbenas and echinops thrive here, in wind and sun, thriving in the dry conditions. To the left is our Hepworth garden based on her painting Green Caves, planted in Piet Oudolf style with bands of grasses and herbaceous perennials such as Echinacea and seudums. These too survive the summer drought. This area has a very special feel, loved by butterflies and bees, and caressed by the breezes. To the fore is the wild flower meadow, a myriad of native grasses and wild flowers. It is a real joy as the sun begins to set behind it bringing a golden glow to the entire scene. Other Art gardens have been created with our Rothko rooms now making great strides where purple beech, berberis and prunus are being shaped into giant panels. Other borders reflect Hokusai's, Monet and Mondrian drawing on the emotion and drama of their individual art works . A recent addition has been an edible flower border, next to the orchard, deliberately sited as a continuation of the edible gardening theme. Petals from the roses and lavender are often used in summer cakes for visitors.