Columbine Hall: a remarkable island garden on an ancient moated estate in Suffolk

Columbine Hall is the home of newspaper publisher Hew Stevenson. He and his late wife first saw a very different sight in November 1992: a concrete farmyard covered in mud, but the moat was breached and the couple embarked on a lifelong transformation. They gradually demolished grain silos, buried overhead wires and removed asbestos. View were enhanced by planting 1,000 English native woodland trees, and a garden of vistas emerged …

What is How My Garden Grows?

Welcome to our gardening series, How My Garden Grows, hosted by lifelong gardener and journalist Francine Raymond. "I have visited hundreds of gardens, some for work and others for pleasure, but what excites me most about gardens is their atmosphere and the stories they tell," she says. "In this series of garden get-togethers, I want to explore real gardens going through the seasons; gardens that have been grown with passion and patience."