Tintinhull Garden

Tintinhull Garden is a small garden around a 17th-century manor house in the village of Tintinhull, a mile south of the A303 near Yeovil. Phyllis Reiss bought the house in 1933 and extended the garden into a sequence of hedged rooms before giving it to the National Trust in 1954; the garden writer Penelope Hobhouse lived here as tenant from 1980 to 1993 and developed the planting, especially the terracotta pots. The house is now a Trust holiday cottage, and visitors have the pools, lawns, borders, an orchard, an arboretum where picnics are welcome and a working kitchen garden whose vegetables and cut flowers are sold for a small donation. A 1-mile circular walk from the car park crosses the village, an orchard and fields. Reviewers find it tranquil and small, with friendly staff, a tiny kiosk for coffee and ice cream and a second-hand book barn. One tip from regular visitors: an hour or so covers it, so pair it with another Trust place nearby. Dogs are welcome except in the kitchen garden and arboretum, and parking is free 150 yards from the house.