Gardens-Guide.com is the premiere open gardens directory in Britain today.
Please check with garden owners or their website to confirm current dates open
Every day except 25th December and days of Open Air Concerts and Grand Firework Spectacular.
Apr - Sept; 10am - 6pm, Last admission 4.30pm.
Latest entry to the Castle is 30 mins after last admission time.
Oct - Mar '11; 10am - 5pm, Last admission 3pm
Castle 10am - 4pm. Last admission 3.30pm
Special rates for groups of 15+.
Preferred.
As above.
Spring Early Summer Late Summer All year round.
Woodland Gardens Culpeper Garden Lady Baillie Garden Aviary, Vineyard, yew tree maze and grotto, Dog Collar Museum 500 acres of grounds.
Key to the Castle tickets allow visitors to pay once and visit all year round and cost £21 for Adults; £18.50 for Seniors and visitors with disabilities (carer goes free); £13.50 for Children (under 4s free). Every ticket to Leeds Castle is valid for 12 months and includes entry to an extensive programme of varied and exciting events (excluding special ticketed events).
Picnics in certain areas. Numerous events, please check own website
Monarda.
Three historic properties within Leeds Castle estate as self-catering holiday cottages
Fairfax Restaurant in coiurtyard
Ringlestone Inn, Harrietsham
Maidstone 7 miles
Visitors first come to the famous Duckery, which, together with the castle moat, is home to numerous wildfowl. The path then meanders alongside the River Len through the Wood Garden, at its best in Spring with daffodils and anemones, and presided over by the striking statue of a female figure. Numerous summer flowering shrubs and rhododendron and azalea come into bloom as the narcissi fade. There is a good view of the castle from the garden in front of the old summer pavilion.
The Culpeper Garden features traditional neat box hedges surrounding colourful perennials and roses, pinks, lupins and poppies. It also contains the National Collection of Monarda - bergamot.
The Mediterranean - style Lady Baillie Garden includes terraces planted with palms, olives, pomegranate, mimosa, vines, hedychium and echiums, all more usually found in warmer climes. It also offers spectacular panoramic views across the castle's Great Water.
The Park was established in the Middle Ages, reflecting Leeds Castle's importance as a royal residence. There is documented evidence of a vineyard at the castle in a Register of Royal Expenses dated 1291-1293 for Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile. It was re-planted with German vines in 1980 and extended with a wider range of varieties, also from Germany, in 2000. In the 1730s Lord Fairfax sent ginseng and wild olives from Virginia to be grown in the Castle's hothouses. The Duckery was created in the 1960s for Olive, Lady Baillie by Russell Page who also transformed the castle's former cut-flower garden into a cottage garden, now called the Culpeper Garden. Princess Alexandra opened The Lady Baillie Garden in 1999, on the site of a previous 18th century garden.