My favourite room: ‘I wanted to open the house into the garden' – model turned gardener Marie Staunton's renovated cottage
Most of us are plotting our summer sun escapes at the moment but there are some professions where July and August are the busiest times. Marie Staunton, one of our best-known gardeners, isn't planning holidays any time soon. In any case, when she goes away, it's not for the sun but to soak up the delights of glorious gardens. She found the gardens of the Alhambra palace in Spain inspirational – its Arabic design, its pools and sunken gardens, its many columns and arches – and even incorporated some of its details in to her own house and garden.
Also on her list of great gardens is that of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire in England – she celebrated her recent roundy birthday there with her husband Christopher Heavey. Famed for its cuisine, Marie enjoyed the food but she raves more about the gardens. 'They have a massive orchard with over a thousand apple, plum and pear trees, a kitchen garden with a pond and the walkway into it is lined with lavender. You know the way you say to yourself 'Don't go somewhere you've been dreaming about', but it was everything I had hoped,' she says.
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