The sun was setting in a blaze of fire as we left Blakenham Woodland Garden on a Thursday evening in mid-April.

The garden is exactly what it says – a woodland garden, located in a seemingly natural woodland setting at the edge of a Suffolk meadow. As we passed through the gate on arrival we heard a woodpecker drumming in woods not far away, and birdsong filled the air. It was the perfect visit for a spring evening.

The garden was created from the 1950s onwards by John Hare, then MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge, who bought the wooded hill next to his house in 1951. Continue reading →