Winter Gardens to visit

Harlow Carr lighting

Fountains Abbey lit up in fiery festive colours

I’ve been out and about this month enjoying wonderful wintry gardens resplendent in frost and vibrant festive colours.
Two of the best to visit this time of year are Harlow Carr (Harrogate) and Fountains Abbey (Ripon).  I visited the gardens at about 3pm which leaves time to explore them in both light and darkness.  They both have stunning lighting effects showing how you can use lighting to pick out the beautiful shapes in your garden and extend its interest into winter.
If you are wondering how to plant a garden for winter interest take a few clues from the winter walk at Harlow Carr.  They have wonderful dogwoods in lots of eye catching colours but also other less obvious contenders like Hamamelis - spicily fragrant witch hazel.
So if you are wondering how to work off the mince pies, take a brisk walk around one of these gardens and start planning your garden for 2018!