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Goddards Green Garden
About Us
Our garden and orchard extend to about 5 acres, surrounding a beautiful 500 year-old clothier’s hall (the house is not open, but is lovely to look at). It was originally laid out in 1920s and has been redesigned over the past 27 years to combine traditional and modern planting schemes, providing variety and interest throughout the year.
We welcome visits from pre-booked groups and the garden is open at least once a year as part of the National Garden Scheme.
Explore the rest of our site to learn more about what we have to offer, and get in touch with any questions.
Goddards Green
More about the garden
Notable features include a modern fountain and rill, linking to the original water garden, mixed borders with bulbs, perennials, flowering shrubs and exotics, a birch grove, a late-summer perennial and grass border, a large pond fringed with mature trees, the kitchen garden, a mixed orchard and a recently-planted arboretum.
We are close to many other outstanding gardens, including Sissinghurst (only a 5 minute drive away), Great Dixter, Scotney Castle and Hole Park, so why not combine a visit to one or more of these iconic gardens with a visit to us?
Goddards Green
History
Goddards Green belonged to one of the principal clothier families of Cranbrook, the Courthopes, for more than 400 years, before it was sold in the 1920s to the novelist and playwright, Temple Thurston. It is likely that the earliest surviving features of the garden, notably the Water Garden, date from his ownership. Later the property was owned for many years by the Pearson family who, we believe, planted many scented roses which remain in the garden. The present design of the garden has evolved since John and Linde Wotton bought Goddards Green in 1992. Garden designers Edward and Nicky Flint created the Fountain Garden, which is linked by a rill to the original Water Garden. They also designed the Swimming Pool Garden, the Fern Garden and several new borders. Their work has been built upon, until her recent retirement, by head gardener Jacqui Harris-Jones. Together with her, we have continued to improve the planting and design of the garden over recent years.
Goddards Green
Description
The gardens surround the house and extend to about five acres, including a small arboretum and a mature, mixed orchard of apples, plums, cherries and cobnuts. Although it is very close to Cranbrook, the setting of the garden is quite rural, looking over fields to woods in the distance. The planting is a varied and developing mix of trees, hedges, shrubs, perennials, ferns, grasses and exotics. The various parts of the garden are in contrasting styles, among them: rural informality around the pond; a traditional long border in front, shading into a meadow and birch grove; rectilinear formality of structure in the Water Garden; a profusion of colours and textures in the late-summer grass and perennial border; and an eclectic, but distinctively modern, design around the swimming pool. We have added a tiny desert garden and greatly extended our collection of camellias, hydrangeas and magnolias. Our most recent project has been to plant an arboretum, with more than 80 different species of tree, including oaks, Acers, Sorbus, Prunus, conifers and many others, offering spring blossom, autumn colour, or both.
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