Breathtaking Gardens of Harrogate and Yorkshire Dales National Park, England

One of my favorite areas is Hedgehog Street, featuring a ‘hedgehog highway’ and offering an abundance of practical ideas to help homeowners protect and encourage these creatures, loved as much for their slug-eating habits as for their spiky appearance.

Betty’s Café Tea Room (at the garden entrance overlooking the grounds) and Tea House (within the garden itself) will ensure you don’t go hungry; and there always seems to be an interesting art exhibit as well as fun, family-friendly events. The gift shop is also a wonderful place to find special gifts.

A one mile footpath links Harlow Carr to Valley Gardens, but you are likely to want to drive in order to continue on to your final destination.

For the garden lover, the floral displays are always exemplary and a perfect frame for the historic buildings including the Sun Pavilion and colonnades. One area of Valley Gardens is known as Bogs Field, where it is believed that a greater number of mineral springs come to the surface than any other known place on earth. Indeed, 36 of Harrogate’s 88 mineral wells are found within the gardens, with no two being alike.

In recent years, the garden staff have been working with a designer to increase biodiversity and create improved habitats for wildlife. The Nectar Bar planting is proving especially attractive to pollinators, including moths.

Begin your garden journey by strolling through the woodland—especially colorful in spring—before crossing an expansive lawn and passing between two deep herbaceous borders. Climbing up the sequence of terraces is well worth the effort, to enjoy the charming plantings as well as the views. From the uppermost terrace, you can choose to continue on to explore the rose garden and a mature rock garden. The wide range of plants within Parcevall explains why this has been described as ’a plantsman’s garden’.

Designed by the owner, Sir William Milner (1893-1960), Parcevall Hall Gardens takes advantage of the varying topography and soil conditions. At the higher elevations, the alkaline soil overlays limestone while at the foot of the hill the acidic soil over gritstone creates the ideal growing environment for his collection of rhododendrons.

No visit to an English garden is complete without a cup of tea, and few English gardens are without a tea room. Situated in a converted cottage, the ambience of this Tea Room is delightful, with lovely views across the garden and beyond.

Should you happen to meet the two gardeners that maintain the gardens, do stop and say hello. I found them to be both knowledgeable and full of wonderful, dry British humor!