Croome

Croome is where Capability Brown made his name. The park was his first complete landscape and the house, Croome Court, was his first major architectural project, so a visit shows his ideas at the very start. The National Trust owns and has restored the core of the eighteenth-century parkland, which is open to visitors through the year.

A good circuit takes in the shrubbery, the lake and the buildings Brown and his successors placed around the park. In the shrubbery, look for the Rotunda, a garden room designed by Brown and built between 1754 and 1757, sheltered by cedars, some planted at the same time. Robert Adam's Temple Greenhouse, completed in 1763, once housed the Earl's exotic plants and was heated by a fire in a brick bothy at the back. Round the man-made lake you will find Brown's grotto, the Punch Bowl gates and an island pavilion. Further out, eye-catchers such as the Park Seat, Panorama Tower, Pirton Castle and Dunstall Castle draw the eye into the wider countryside.

Gardeners will pick up lessons about borrowed views, the way buildings sit in a landscape and how planting frames them. Do not confuse the National Trust park with the large Georgian walled garden next door: that was restored by private owners, opened in 2014 and is run separately, so check its own arrangements. The house is open too, with rooms by Brown and Robert Adam. Wear sturdy shoes, as the full park walk is long.