Michael Marriott

Please email us on todgardentours@gmail.com if you would like to book one of our tours or would like some more information.

Please keep checking this website as more tours will be soon be released

WEST SUSSEX

26th May 2023

£170 per person

TWO PLACES NOW AVAILABLE

An exciting, special opportunity to visit two beautiful, ground-breaking gardens; one created by a Victorian pioneer of naturalistic planting; the other a 21st century take on applying rewilding principles into a 1.5 acre garden space.

First stop

Gravetye Manor

The garden at Gravetye is considered one of the most important historic gardens in England.  

It was created by William Robinson, (the visionary godfather of naturalistic planting), in the 1880’s when he bought the 1598 Manor house and surrounding land.  He then spent the rest of his life turning 35 acres of the estate into a naturalistic mixture of wildflower meadows and flower borders, where nature, not man, predominated.

Affectionately remembered as ‘the Irishman who taught the English how to garden’ this is a wonderful opportunity to compare historic naturalistic gardening with the modern day equivalent at nearby Knepp Estate.

Kew trained head gardener, Tom Coward, will lead the tour round some of the iconic parts of the estate, including the unique elliptical sandstone walled garden, (where cut flowers, fruit and vegetables are grown), the wild flower meadows and garden terraces.

© Claire Takacs

© Gravetye Manor

© Gravetye Manor

Second stop

Knepp Estate

Knepp Estate is probably the most famous rewilding project in Britain.  

In April 2022 the rewilding process was extended into the Estate’s 1.5 acre Victorian walled garden and adjoining orchard.  

Professor James Hitchmough and Tom Stuart-Smith were engaged to naturalistically redesign the areas.

The walled garden’s highly manicured croquet lawn was replaced with over 800 different types of plants, and varying soil types, creating a treasure trove of micro-habitats for a wide variety of insects and birds.

TV presenter, Arit Anderson, filmed in the Walled Garden for BBC Gardeners’ World, looking at how rewilding can be successfully applied to smaller, garden spaces without sacrificing beauty.

As a result of the highly successful return of nightingales to Knepp’s regenerated land, Sir David Attenborough filmed part of his narration for the BBC programme, ‘Wonder of Song’ in the walled garden.

Although a young project, Rosie was immensely struck by the beauty and spirit of the walled garden when she visited in October 2022.  

Our bespoke, 2 1/2 hour tour with the Head Gardener Charlie Harpur, will be an exciting, informative and memorable visit.

DORSET

13th June 2023

£140

ONE PLACE LEFT

A trio of Dorset delights with completely differing styles and content awaits you on this mid-summer tour.

Dorset Walled Garden 

This beautifully designed and maintained garden, enhanced by the wonderfully creative Isabel and Julian Bannerman, is set within the valley of an organic farm in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

At the time of our visit the main herbaceous border should be full and overflowing with floriferous beauty interspersed with the tasteful trademark Bannerman oak obelisks.  There is also a rill and gravel garden to discover along with a beautiful walled kitchen and cutting garden.  Oh, and did we mention there are around 400 roses!

We Grow Colour

John Makepeace’s Garden

YORKSHIRE

23rd June 2023

£140 per person

SOLD OUT

We’ve added another garden to last year’s successful tour to this part of the country, making it a visit that’s all about the flowers!

Breezy Knees

Described by Monty Don as ‘a beautiful modern garden created on the grandest possible scale’, this 20 acre garden is divided into several different planted areas and, at the time of our visit, should be in full flower.  

We will be concentrating on the Cottage and Rose gardens, as well as the wonderful flower meadow and, with over 7,000 different plant varieties, we feel sure you’ll be spoiled for choice

Oh, and did we mention there’s an extensive plant nursery on site too?!

Jackson’s Wold

This beautiful and unusual private garden has been imaginatively planted and lovingly tended since 1984 by warmly enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable garden owners, Richard and Sarah Cundall, who will accompany us round the garden.

Alan Titchmarsh has described it as ‘the most stunning…gardens filled with beautiful blooms…’ and, when we visit, the garden should be full of a profusion of (mostly old) roses and many other unusual flowering plants.

Oh, and did we mention they sell plants propagated from their garden too?!

Scampston Walled Garden

‘Without doubt one of the great gardens of the early 21st century…’ Sir Richard Carew Pole, Past President R.H.S.

Set within 18th century walls of the original kitchen garden for Scampston Hall, the 4.5 acre walled garden, designed by Piet Oudolf, has an exciting, modern feel to it

Since opening to the public in 2005 it has received a great deal of international acclaim and featured on Gardeners’ World in 2022.  This walled garden is an outstanding example of how Piet Oudolf combines his skill as a designer and extensive knowledge as a plantsman.  It still remains his largest private commission in the UK.

We will have exclusive use of the beautifully restored conservatory for afternoon tea.

Oh, and did we mention they have an extensive plant nursery on site too?!

WEST MIDLANDS

30th June 2023

£140 per person

5 PLACES LEFT

Variety and the pursuit of horticultural excellence is the theme that links these three wonderful gardens.  This tour provides the opportunity to visit a stunning, contemporary gravel garden with natural swim pool;  a beautifully designed herbaceous perennial garden and plant nursery within an historic walled garden and the National Collection holder of aeonium.

The Cottage Herbery

Kim and Rob Hurst have been running their successful herb nursery since 1976 and have won several gold medals for their displays at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. They have recently created a stunning, immaculately maintained and styled, contemporary gravel garden with movement, flow and a naturalistic raw beauty.  It’s planted with hardy, vibrant perennials, eye-catching fluid grasses and the odd surprise rare plant.  On the edge of the gravel garden they’ve cleverly included the skeletal remains of an old hop picking barn covering the uprights with rambling roses and other climbers. This leads to a beautifully tranquil, natural swimming pond, gloriously framed by newly seeded wild flower fields and the wider countryside beyond.  All plants for sale in their on-site nursery are grown in a peat-free growing medium.

Wildegoose Nursery

Listed in Gardens Illustrated in 2019 as one of the top 100 specialist garden nurseries, Jack and Laura Willgoss have, since 2011, been steadily creating a beautifully landscaped garden with perennials and grasses as well as a small plant nursery, all within the walls of the old 2 acre kitchen garden at Millichope Park in South Shropshire.  They are also holders of the Bouts collection of Perennial Violas.  The couple, who both trained at RHS Wisley, have a great eye for colour as well as selecting unusual cultivars and have created a garden of both sustained interest and great beauty.  An additional feature is the newly restored and stunning range of Georgian curvilinear glasshouses.

Aeonium Mellie

Mellie Lewis is a delightfully enthusiastic host who has amassed a superb collection of both aeonium and semponium, many bred by herself.  She is a National Plant Collection holder of aeonium.   The collection is contained within her pretty garden and conservatory, from which there are stunning views to the distant Shropshire Hills.   The visit also includes a tour of the nearby, charming historic, early seventeenth century Alms Houses garden

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WELSH BORDERS

20th July 2023

£150 per person

SOLD OUT BUT PLEASE MESSAGE US TO GO ON THE WAITING LIST

Three very special and very different gardens hidden away deep in the welsh countryside; all taking inspiration from the countryside around them.

Allt-y-Bela

A rare opportunity to visit the very beautiful private garden of RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winner and garden designer Arne Maynard. The beautifully maintained garden can be found nestled in a secret Welsh valley and wrapped around a stunning late medieval farmhouse.  It combines formal topiary and pleached malus trees with soft native planting all blending seamlessly into the wider rural landscape of fields containing a mix of orchids and other wildflowers.

Veddw

Set in the wonderful Welsh countryside above Tintern with its atmospheric historic Abbey, lies the beautiful garden at Veddw, the creation of husband and wife team Anne Wareham & Charles Hawes.  The 2 acre ornamental garden contains many areas including a masterfully designed reflecting pool surrounded by beautiful sinuously shaped yew hedges leading to and surrounding the pool.  Anne has a great interest in the history of the local landscape and has incorporated this into the garden design, in particular a large parterre of grasses in a pattern of box hedges based on the local Tithe Map of 1842.  This garden has featured as an inspirational garden on ITV’s Love Your Garden, on Escape to the Country and on Welsh television.

High Glanau Manor

High Glanau Manor is a handsome important Arts & Crafts house set in 12 acres of gardens designed in the 1920’s by H. Avery Tipping, Architectural Editor of Country Life. It was his last home. The gardens are beautiful and have been restored to their former glory and retain many original features such as the formal terraces, octagonal pool, glasshouse and pergola as well as the double 100′ herbaceous borders which have been reinstated. Both house and terraces have spectacular views over the woodland gardens towards the Brecon Beacons. 

EAST SUSSEX

27th July 2023

£180 per person

3 PLACES LEFT

An incredibly exciting and rare opportunity to be part of a guided tour around two beautiful gardens, both full of joyfully colourful plant colour combinations, skilfully and artistically designed by two icons of horticulture, Fergus Garrett and Sarah Raven.

Great Dixter

Sarah Raven’s Cutting Garden

WEST SUSSEX III

28th July 2023

£170 per person

ONE PLACE LEFT

First stop

Gravetye Manor

The garden at Gravetye is considered one of the most important historic gardens in England.  

It was created by William Robinson, (the visionary godfather of naturalistic planting), in the 1880’s when he bought the 1598 Manor house and surrounding land.  He then spent the rest of his life turning 35 acres of the estate into a naturalistic mixture of wildflower meadows and flower borders, where nature, not man, predominated.

Affectionately remembered as ‘the Irishman who taught the English how to garden’ this is a wonderful opportunity to compare historic naturalistic gardening with the modern day equivalent at nearby Knepp Estate.

Kew trained head gardener, Tom Coward, will lead the tour round some of the iconic parts of the estate, including the unique elliptical sandstone walled garden, (where cut flowers, fruit and vegetables are grown), the wild flower meadows and garden terraces.

© Mark Bolton

© Gravetye Manor

© Gravetye Manor

Second stop

Knepp Estates

Knepp Estate is probably the most famous rewilding project in Britain.  

In April 2022 the rewilding process was extended into the Estate’s 1.5 acre Victorian walled garden and adjoining orchard.  

Professor James Hitchmough and Tom Stuart-Smith were engaged to naturalistically redesign the areas.

The walled garden’s highly manicured croquet lawn was replaced with over 800 different types of plants, and varying soil types, creating a treasure trove of micro-habitats for a wide variety of insects and birds.

TV presenter, Arit Anderson, filmed in the Walled Garden for BBC Gardeners’ World, looking at how rewilding can be successfully applied to smaller, garden spaces without sacrificing beauty.

As a result of the highly successful return of nightingales to Knepp’s regenerated land, Sir David Attenborough filmed part of his narration for the BBC programme, ‘Wonder of Song’ in the walled garden.

Although a young project, Rosie was immensely struck by the beauty and spirit of the walled garden when she visited in October 2022.  

Our bespoke, 2 1/2 hour tour with the Head Gardener Charlie Harpur, will be an exciting, informative and memorable visit.

IRELAND

9th/10th August 2023

£225 per person

2 PLACES LEFT

We enjoyed ourselves so much on our inaugural Ireland tour that we thought we’d extend it in 2023 to a two full day tour.

June Blake’s Garden

Kilmacurragh

This National Botanic Garden was created in the 1800’s during a time of great horticultural excitement when adventurous plant hunters were bringing back exciting new plants from around the world, many of which were planted in this garden.   Expect to see magnificently tall flowering rhododendrons, rare and unusual spring flowering perennials and shrubs and, hopefully, flowering meadows.

Patthana Garden

Jimi Blake’s Garden at Hunting Brook

TOD Garden tours 

TOD Garden Tours is the brainchild of Rosie Irving and her partner Michael Marriott, dreamt up on a gloomy, grey December morning.  Our small, friendly group tours, (usually no more than 16), provide access to, and guide you around, a lovely selection of superb private and public gardens in the U.K. and Ireland, carefully selected for their striking, structural, colourful garden design and/or super abundance of gorgeous roses.

EACH TOUR IS PRICED SEPARATELY AND, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, INCLUDES GARDEN ENTRY FEES & AFTERNOON TEA AND CAKE

The joy of these tours is that you get the benefit of not one but two experienced horticulturists; one a world-renowned rose expert and life-long gardener; the other a colour loving, garden design trained horticulturist and Horticultural Producer for many UK TV garden programmes.  There’s a glorious, bantering interaction between the two which not only makes the tours unique but also rather special and lots of fun! 

The tours are mainly single day events, visiting two, sometimes three gardens, each starting with an introductory talk from the garden owner or head gardener.  Numbers are limited to a maximum of 16 to enable you to obtain the maximum benefit from Rosie and Michael’s bantering expertise.

The tours are designed for you to travel to each of the locations, (and in between each garden), independently.  For those of you wishing to travel the night before, or extend your visit, lists of a range of accommodation local to the tour gardens can be supplied, as suggested by the various garden owners.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what TOD stands for, it’s Two Old Duffers!

ABOUT US

Rosie and Michael both have degrees related to horticulture.  Rosie is extremely proud of her *1st (don’t ask her what that means!). Michael can hardly remember anything about his!

© Arit Anderson

Rosie trained in Garden and Planting Design at Capel Manor College and, after gaining her degree in horticulture, taught Plants and Planting Design at Kingston Maurward College.  Her co-designed Hepworth exhibit was proudly displayed on Tate Britain’s front lawn during the summer of 2015.  She loves nothing better than to put together great colour combinations in the garden and has a delightful approach to the subject.  For the past 13 years she has worked in the TV industry on numerous gardening programmes and has gained a reputation as the ‘go to’ person for consultancy within the industry.

Instagram @rosieposieirving

Email rosieirving@me.com

Michael brings to the party 35 years as head rosarian at David Austin Roses & is now widely recognised as a world expert on the subject.  He has designed thousands of rose gardens of varying sizes worldwide including some of the gardens we’ll be visiting on these tours.  He has also leads garden tours and lectures extensively around the world.  He has a refreshing approach to the subject and is always happy to answer questions. Author of RHS Roses and in 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Garden Media Guild.

Instagram @michaelrosarian

email michaelrosarian@gmail.com

Both love to garden and their combined knowledge and legendary light hearted differences of opinion mean that these tours should be full of fun as well as gardening & garden design related advice.