Places to visit
There are plenty of good garden guide books, though you have to read between the lines of most to find gardens which might give inspiration to climate-friendly gardeners, or indeed generally ‘green’ gardeners.
Anything with the word ‘orchard’ in the entry is usually worth a visit, or anything with plenty of trees.
Sometimes ‘woodland gardens’ are well worth visiting if they have been built up from unwooded land into many-layered gardens sheltered by trees, but beware places where well-intentioned but ignorant gardeners have turned the original habitat of a wood into a degraded garden version of it.
But guide books are beginning to mention environmentally friendly things which gardeners are trying to do, so if you know anywhere that’s inspired you and you haven’t done so already, why not let the garden guidebook people know about it and why? The more of us who mention climate-friendly gardening (and sustainable gardening as a whole) the more we’ll encourage other gardeners to be more climate-friendly. Let me know too and I’ll mention it in the blog, and report back if I get a chance to visit.
Garden-finding websites:
Royal Horticultural Society Garden Finder
Royal Horticultural Society Nursery Finder
National Gardens Scheme (‘The Yellow Book’)
Scotland’s Gardens
Ireland’s Gardens to See
National Trust
National Trust for Scotland
English Heritage
Historic Scotland
Cadw
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Heritage Ireland
Orchard Network
Champion trees in Britain (Tree Register)
Champion trees in Ireland (Tree Council of Ireland)
Historic parks and gardens (Parks & Gardens UK)
Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
Open Farm Sunday
Permaculture Association LAND Centres (‘Learning and Network Demonstration’ Centres)
Plant Heritage (National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens) for national species collections
Botanic gardens and arboretums, and other documented plant collections in Britain and Ireland:
Plant Network
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
Apps for visits to gardens and wildlife sites:
The National Gardens Scheme Yellow Book app
The Wildlife Trusts Nature Finder app
Ordnance Survey MapFinder app