Dine beside our private Japanese garden in Kent

Adrian designed the The Silk House garden in 2015, starting with an unkempt field and a few mature trees. Adrian, Silke and Hendrik dug out ponds (with a 5 tonne digger and dumper), made large mounds, shifted a lot of rock and laid out the bones of the garden rooms in 2016. It was inspired by our extensive travels around Japan.

Silke, an RHS trained plantswoman (at Hever Castle), did virtually all of the planting and propagation. She planted hundreds of beech, hornbeam and yews, to create hedges and cordon off borrowed landscape. We harvest and recirculate rainwater and compost absolutely everything. We have a Chelsea Gold Medal winning acer in the zen dry garden (along with about 30 other acers), various pines, giant bamboos, five ponds containing Koi, Tench, Orfe and lots of wildlife. We create Bonsai and Niwaki and Silke has a huge collection of aeoniums. It's designed as a stroll and water zen garden with many traditional Japanese features and granite scuptures. It has been lauded by the Japanese Garden Society and for 6 years we opened the garden for charity but it is now entirely private. Many have said it is the best private Japanese garden in Kent. We maintain it entirely ourselves - no gardeners or help.

Photos or video to follow.