Some of my favourite gardens

As many of you will already know, I love sketching in gardens. I've written about them previously in Gardens and Botanical Art over on Making a Mark. However I've been making a lot of websites about gardens recently so that I can share them with people - and I thought they might be of interest or use to fellow bloggers who enjoy sketching in gardens

The gardens I've been making websites fall into one of two categories. They are:

• either some of my favourite gardens
• or important gardens which deserve highlighting - and are going on my 'to visit' list.

If you fancy travelling with your sketchbook to some of my favourite gardens (or just pay a virtual visit) why not check out the following websites - you'll find all the logistics details as well as what commentary on what they have to offer. You can easily bookmark them or share them with others using the functions in the right hand column of each site. Now I've got my laptop up and running again, I'm planning to include some slideshows of photos I've taken at some of the gardens

You'll also find some of my sketches providing some visual interest on a number of the sites!

Some of my favourite gardens

The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew
Over a million people visit the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew each year. The 300 acres of gardens and botanical collections are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means they rank alongside Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and the Taj Mahal!

RHS Wisley - a Great Garden
Wisley Garden, in Surrey, is the flagship garden of the Royal Horticultural Society and is probably the most visited garden in the UK after Kew Gardens.

Munstead Wood - a great garden
For garden designers, Munstead Wood in Surrey is one of the most famous gardens in England. It was the home of Gertrude Jekyll who is renowned as a plantswoman. She created ways of planting which were very innovative in their day - and the garden at Munstead Wood was one of the places where she tried out her ideas.

Sissinghurst Castle Garden - a great garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent is probably the most famous 20th century garden in the UK and is an English Heritage Historic Garden Grade I. It's also recently been the subject of a BBC Documentary series. It's one of my favourite gardens for the sheer variety and yet domestic scale.

Great Dixter - a great garden
Great Dixter in East Sussex was created by Christopher Lloyd and is a garden which is extremely popular with plantsman gardeners - those who particularly like plants and flowers. It's also quite close to Sissinghurst.

Tatton Park - a great garden
The gardens at Tatton Park in Cheshire are rated as being among the most impressive in England. Tatton Park has also been the the home of the RHS Flower Show since 1999. The 50 acre gardens are laid out in a traditional Edwardian fashion around the mansion home of the Edgerton family. Both are located within a 1,000 acre deer park. This is a garden I often used to visit as a child and that I now return to as an adult when visiting family.

Bodnant Garden - a great garden
Bodnant Garden in North Wales is one of the most beautiful gardens in the UK and is world-famous. It comprises lawns, terraced gardens and is noted for its botanical collections and wide range of plants. I used to visit when a child and memories of the laburnum arbor are still very fresh in my memory

Giverny - a great garden
Giverny is a very famous garden created and painted by Claude Monet. When I visited Giverny for the first time I was immediately struck by the fact that Monet did not only create art with oils.

My 'to visit' list

The Lost Gardens of Heligan - a great garden
These Cornish Gardens are now famous in the UK. They were left to grow wild for decades before a major restoration project was started in 1996 by Tim Smit. Although still part of an ongoing project, the garden now attracts a huge number of visitors

Malmaison - a great garden
The Château de Malmaison was the home of Napoléon's first wife - the Empress Joséphine and became the birthplace of the tea rose. The garden she developed included more than 250 varieties of roses and other exotic flowers from her native West Indies, and rare species from Australia. The catalogue of the garden became famous as one of the most exquisite publications of botanical art in the world.

In reality, you only need one bookmark if you want to keep track of what's going on - and that's Great Gardens of the World - which also includes some gardens recommended by other people

If you like any or all of the garden sites - or have visited any of the gardens - please leave can comment below or on any of the sites. You don't need to be a member of squidoo to comment.