Hestercombe Gardens

Hestercombe lets you walk through three centuries of English garden design in one visit. The 50 acres north of Taunton include a Georgian landscape garden, a Victorian terrace and, most famously, the Edwardian formal garden that was the first major collaboration between the architect Edwin Lutyens and the gardener Gertrude Jekyll. The ground slopes gently south, with long views over the Taunton valley to the Blackdown Hills.

Start with the formal garden. The Great Plat is a sunken parterre of lawns and beds edged with stone and bergenia, closed at its southern end by a long stone pergola hung with roses, clematis, wisteria and honeysuckle. Narrow water channels with circular loops run down the side terraces to lily ponds, and to the east lie the Rotunda, the Orangery and the Dutch Garden, planted in silver and white with yuccas, lavender and catmint. Along the Victorian terrace, the Grey Walk is packed with scented blue, silver and white perennials.

Then head north into the valley for the Georgian landscape garden laid out by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde, with a cascade, a temple, seats at viewpoints and a mausoleum, restored with help from his own watercolours. Gardeners will learn most from how Jekyll planted into dry stone walls and paving, and how Lutyens used local Ham stone and slate. Dogs are welcome on leads throughout, and there is a restaurant, a plant centre and a second-hand book shop.