During April I was very lucky to able to visit a private garden in West Sussex. It was The Working Garden cared for by head gardener Benjamin Pope and team.    On arrival, the raked gravel drive to the house meanders via woody shady planting with shrubby structural greens and seasonal winter colour. The plant of the moment,  Disporum Night Heron was the star attraction with its chartreuse green against almost black tones. Fronting the the house, newly constructed feature raised block planters feature elegant flowering Cornus, each framed with Fagus sylvatica who’s marcescence will mellow its leaves to a classy brown and hide the blocks during the winter months. Continuing on, the curvature of the drive meets, matches and pics up the beautiful stone circular gated entrance leading to the main walled garden. Here you’ll find avenues of iterdispersed apple trees and box hedges clipped to a natural flow.      The borders within contain a multitude of goodies. Many herbaceous jewels revitalised softening the stuctural boundaries which frame them. The cutting borders and vegetable beds embraced with trained fruit.           The excitement continues and bursts out of the walls over into other areas of the garden. There’s the simple but oh so reflective pool which is so peaceful to be by for instance drifting to sandwiched, layered curves of hedging linking to the vistas beyond.      Towards the fields the style of planting changes to become even more naturalistic. Ornamental grasses merge with their natives, meadows and shrubs become one. Here are the allhorts group checking out the vistas in the distance.   Heading back closer to the back of the house you’ll find the box cloud which takes some hours to maintain. The back terrace is softened by Alchemilla mollis whilst currently bold displays of jewel like Tulipa and Muscari fill pot clusters.     There was rain forecast that day. In case of shelter, we could play around with the window dressing undercover, fluff up some flowers or chalk out the to do list on the board     Instead though, like all good horts, we headed straight for the delightful shed for a bellyful of cake and banter in the sun. Thank you Ben and all the all horts group for the great day and many happy memories. Benjamin’s beautifully crafted website can be found here at The Working Garden.