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Please check with garden owners or their website to confirm current dates open 5 April - end Sept; Wed - Sun; 11am - last entry 5pm. BH weekends 11am - last entry 5pm
Yes but only for groups by appointment
28th September and 12th June
April, May, June, September
April -Daffodils & other bulbs. May -Blossom, Rhododendrons. June - herbaceous border and roses. September - grass maze
Adult £6; Child £2.50; Groups £5 pp; Wheelchair users £1; Season £20, Family Season; £50; Single child season £7.50
New Restaurant opened in 2007. Some areas difficult for the disabled to access. Plants for sale on special occasions.
Special Features, Events/Dates and other comments:
Easter Egg Trail - 20th and 21st April
Pat - A - Lamb Weekend - May 4th & 5th.
Cherry Day - 13th July.
Pantaloons Theatre Company - 25th August.
Apple Sunday - 14th Sept
Easter Egg Trail - 20th and 21st April
Pat-a-Lamb Weekend 4th and 5th May
Vintage Day 11th May
Pantaloons 25th August
Apple Sunday TBC
The Garden Hotel, Boughton, Kent The White Horse, Boughton
Martins Restaurant, Boughton Garden Hotel The White Horse
Three Horseshoes or Red Lion, Hernhill Dove, Dargate Shipwrights Arms, Oare
Canterbury City Faversham, market town
The nine acres of gardens are remarkable for their variety, and against a backdrop of trees of outstanding shapes and contrasts, they include an unusual topiary, water garden and arboretum, all set in the heart of a progressive fruit farm. Magnificent views extend over the Swale and Thames estuary, and the gardens are surrounded by woodland parks and orchards. Rose terraces enclosed by yew hedges slope down to a lake with a woodland area as a backdrop. Planting throughout is intensive giving colour and interest throughout the year. The Japanese rock garden, ornamented with stone huterns and based on a series of pools, follows an alternative gently winding route.
These privately owned and maintained gardens show a wonderful contrast between the formal and informal. The gardens offer a fresh and relaxing approach for visitors.
For three hundred years Mount Ephraim has belonged to the Dawes family. The existing house was built by Edwyn (later Sir Edwyn) Dawes, who, having gone to sea as a boy, established himself as a wealthy and successful shipowner, becoming Chairman of the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1890. Around 1876, he decided to re-occupy the family home which had been let out since 1820. The elegant little house was riddled with dry rot and had to be demolished. It was replaced by the present, much grander building. On his death in 1903, his eldest son Willie inherited the estate.
It was Willie Dawes who developed the garden, which was to become an absorbing and lifelong interest. When Willie died in 1920, his son Sandys was left with inadequate means to maintain the property. By the time that Sandys Dawes died in 1949 the garden was virtually derelict, the outer reaches so overgrown with weeds as to be impenetrable. In 1950 his son Bill moved into Mount Ephraim with his wife Mary and their four young children. They gradually restored the garden and after Bill retired in 1972 from the shipping company, of which he had also been chairman, he was able to devote more time to the garden. After his death in 1982, the garden was opened to the public.