Twenty-five years after a historic garden was rescued from the brink of total collapse, Easton Walled Gardens opens its gates for a milestone spring and summer season with guided walks, art courses, dog days and open days.
Once described by Franklin D Roosevelt as “a dream of Nirvana,” Easton Hall was demolished 75 years ago in 1951 following severe damage during the Second World War.
For decades, the 12-acre grounds lay completely abandoned, disappearing beneath brambles, nettles, and sycamores like a real-life Sleeping Beauty.
Easton Walled Gardens 25 years ago were like a hidden scene from ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Photo: SuppliedEaston Walled Gardens 25 years ago were like a hidden scene from ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Photo: Supplied
The Cholmeley family had owned the estate in which the gardens lie for more than 16 generations, making it one of the longest-held family estates in England, and during the Second World War, the house and grounds was requisitioned as a military barracks and used for training airborne crews for the Battle of Arnhem.
In 2001, Ursula and Fred Cholmeley began an ambitious, decades-long project to wake the gardens up. Now, as the 2026 season gets underway, visitors are invited to experience this story of revival, resilience, and immersive horticulture at Easton.
Over the last 25 years, the garden has come back to life, and visitors can pop in to enjoy coffee and cake in the courtyard, browse the courtyard shops, or enter the gardens on a visitor ticket to linger longer in this part of Lincolnshire.
Easton Walled Gardens today. Photo: SuppliedEaston Walled Gardens today. Photo: Supplied
When the Cholmeleys inherited the Easton Estate in 1998, the historic site was sitting at the highest level of the at-risk building register, with perhaps only five years left before everything in the garden collapsed entirely.
“I knew I had to make sure that lots of people cared what happened to the gardens,” Ursula said.
“But saving the gardens meant tackling 12 acres of dense, impenetrable wilderness. Learning to run a business whilst clearing a 12-acre garden was a big challenge.”
Faced with a daunting blank canvas, Ursula’s horticultural philosophy was born out of practicality, patience, and a desire to work with the land rather than impose upon it.
Easton Walled Gardens pictured in 2015. Photo: Supplied
Her advice to any gardener facing an overwhelming plot is the exact method she used to save the gardens: “Start by the door and work out. Get a small bit right and then choose another small area. Breaking it down into small spaces keeps gardening from becoming a chore. Don’t worry about getting it wrong, just keep trying and watching.”
Over the last quarter-century, Ursula and her dedicated team have transformed the ruins into a living, breathing landscape. Rejecting rigid Edwardian formality, the design ethos is about feeling ‘in it’, not ‘on it’, creating an immersive experience where visitors can brush past the planting, breathe in the soil, and move beneath the boughs of ancient trees.
Easton Walled Gardens today. Photo: SuppliedEaston Walled Gardens today. Photo: SuppliedThe Pickery at Easton Walled Gardens. Photo: Supplied
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the restoration, the 2026 season spotlights three of the estate’s greatest horticultural triumphs:
The Walled Garden: A Masterclass in ‘Notswolds’ Calm What was once choked by weeds is now a 12-acre masterclass in relaxed, richly layered planting. The restored parkland is anchored by ancient ash, beech, and lime trees, alongside vast black walnut and Atlas cedar trees that shade the south lawn. Orchards have been meticulously revived, now heavy with local apple varieties, quince, and sweet greengages. In early summer, the Walled Garden hums with life: meadows dotted with wild orchids take centre stage, and the estate’s roses are encouraged to grow freely through tall grasses, creating incredible movement, softness, and seasonal drama.
The Pickery: The Beating Heart of Easton At the very core of Easton Walled Gardens summer season is The Pickery, the garden’s celebrated and nationally recognised cut-flower garden. Designed by Ursula with a fiercely practical yet highly creative approach, The Pickery thrives on careful succession planning for colour, height, and scent.
The venue is particularly famous for its sweet peas. Sown in late autumn and planted in spring to create towering, layered displays, sweet peas are what Ursula calls the “queen of cut flowers.” For over two decades, Easton has cultivated over 40 varieties, even breeding their own exclusive cultivars on-site, such as ‘Toffee Apple’ and ‘Pink Pimpernel’. The sweetpeas are grown now just outside the Pickery walls, and summer peaks now with cosmos, zinnias, rudbeckias, and salvias, giving the space a vibrant, painterly quality that feels unmistakably Easton. Seeds are harvested and packed on site, sold in the courtyard shop and sent across the country in sweet pea tins.
The Pickery at Easton Walled Gardens. Photo: SuppliedEaston Walled Gardens today. Photo: Supplied
The White Space Garden: Cosmic Inspiration One of Easton’s most distinctive and serene spaces, the White Space Garden is deeply personal to the wider estate’s history. Inspired by the work of architectural historian Charles Jencks, the garden is rich with symbolism. Swirling box hedges have been expertly trained to mimic the Milky Way, complemented by a striking slate planet sculpture by Joe and Jenny Smith. The design is a clever nod to the Renaissance era – a time when an intense interest in the cosmos flourished, and exactly when the Cholmeley family first arrived at Easton 450 years ago in 1561. It is here that Ursula says she loves to watch the early morning sunlight filter through the trees.
Beyond the breath-taking planting, the magnificent Victorian architecture, including the Anthony Salvin-designed clock tower, the gatehouse, and stables has been lovingly saved and given new life.
Today, the reimagined courtyard serves as a vibrant hub for visitors and includes a stationery store run by Monty Cholmeley and a cafe with treats baked by Fred’s sister Davina, continuing the 14-generation connection to the estate.
To enjoy a fully immersive experience at Easton, there are also six idyllic holiday cottages which allow guests to enjoy the magic of the gardens beyond opening hours. The stylish cottages have all been ‘saved’ too and renovated to a high standard over the last 25 years.
Reflecting on the 25th anniversary, Ursula said: “I am proud that we have got this far – I can now say ‘This is here’ instead of ‘This is going to be here,’ which was the story for many years.
“Optimistically, we hope the gardens will be here for another four centuries.”
Easton Walled Gardens begins to take shape in the early 2000s. Photo: Supplied
To mark its 25th anniversary year, Easton Walled Gardens will host a curated program of seasonal events, creative workshops, and horticultural highlights:
Spring Tree Walk – March 28: Join Monty Cholmeley, trained woodworker and arboriculturist, for an exclusive, guided spring walk around the ancient trees of Easton Park.
Block Printing Workshop – March 14 and 15: Isabela Streeter, founder of Haveli Diaries, hosts an immersive weekend of traditional block printing in the tranquil setting of the gardens.
Dog Days – March and August: Every Sunday afternoon in March and August: Easton opens its gates to four-legged friends. Dog owners are invited to explore the 12 acres of gardens, meadows, and woodland walks with their dogs, followed by homemade cake and refreshments in The Coffee Room.
National Garden Scheme Open Day – April 3: The gardens will open their gates on Good Friday in special support of the National Garden Scheme, raising money for vital nursing and health charities.
Sweet Pea Season – From June 24 and throughout July: Visitors can treat their senses to the visual delights and heady fragrances of over 50 varieties of sweet peas in The Pickery, featuring heritage pastels, bicolours, and deep velvet tones.
Easton Walled Gardens, between Colsterworth and Stoke Rochford, is open five days a week from Wednesday to Sunday until December 20. More details are at www.visiteaston.co.uk
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