The website for Muswell Hill and District Gardeners

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Ally Pally Allotments were set up by Haringey Council in 1917 to provide plots for local people to grow their own fruit and vegetables. A thriving allotment association runs a members' shop, an evaporating toilet and a community polytunnel. In summer 2020 they built a new social shed for meetings, horticultural workshops and cafe sessions. During the growing season, fruit and vegetables are collected weekly for a food bank in nearby Hornsey. From May until September an informal art group meets weekly to draw or paint - and then chat over tea. North London Beekeepers have a special plot with beehives where they educate people about beekeeping. Mixed hedging has been planted on the site's boundary, to increase biodiversity, and there are plans to establish a hazel grove, for cutting sticks to support climbing plants and so reduce the need for imported bamboo canes. Cashless payment available for teas and produce.

Clearly marked trails will enable you to explore the site and meet plotholders. Plants, produce and used tools on sale.

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Ask the owners about the stories of 'Travelling London Pride', the 'three times Tamarix tree' and the Blue Bottles.and get your children to search for the sad lady, the cold lady, the little owl, the boy with the violin, the dragon, the lizard, the elephant and the chinese lion! You are very welcome to enjoy tea and home-made cakes sitting in one of the seating areas in this pretty garden.

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There is a variety of planting. A gravel garden, woodland areas, and a large selection of plants in containers. A wealth of ideas to copy and some warnings of what not to do!

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking preferred, cash only on the day, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

The Autumn Flower and Produce Show is on the same day and features prize winning horticultural and domestic exhibits. Tours of best plots. Fresh allotment produce, chutneys, jams, honey, cakes and light refreshments for sale.

Featured by Monty Don BBC Gardeners' World.

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

The Paradise garden is a work in progress, with several seating areas and a large central water feature – specially commissioned from India – as the hub of a network of curving stone paths. It is surrounded by a circular bed of fragrant herbs. An exotic orchard comprises pomegranate, peach, quince, apricot, loquat, prickly pear, fig and black mulberry and is complemented by a stone terrace featuring orange and lemon trees.

A Hartley Botanic greenhouse with a curved glass roof houses a propagation bench and many tender plants including cacti. A stand of Jaquemontii birch frames a view of Highgate Woods. Arid beds feature aloes and agaves. A small natural pond encourages wildlife.

Established palms, some of which are seven metres high, have recently been complemented by a variety of types, for instance a Chilean wine palm which will one dwarf them. Banana varieties include musa basjoo, ensete ventricosum and musella lasiocarpa. Other standout plants include tasmarisk, tetrapanax papyfer rex, grevilleas, tea trees, cycads, dasylirion, beschorneria, bamboos, yucca rostrata, bottle brush, bird of paradise, cistus, strawberry tree and mimosa. Mediterranean herbs feature throughout the garden, as does as a wide range of pittosporums.

The garden is opening for the third time. It is the result of a six-year evolution, starting with watercolour designs by the owner of his dream garden. Ten tons of stone from India and Portugal were used to create a structure to set off the planting, which is now maturing rapidly to realise the design.

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Vegetables, fruit and herbs are grown in oak raised beds and a modern glasshouse. Visitors often remark on seeing what are usually regarded as house plants flourishing outdoors, pushing the boundaries of hardiness.

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Live music from the Secret Life Sax Quartet at 3pm and 4pm.

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

• 17 Princes Avenue, N10
• 28 Princes Avenue, N10

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• 2 Dorset Road, N22
• 4 Dorset Road, N22
• 14 Dorset Road, N22
• 22 Dorset Road, N22
• 24a Dorset Road, N22

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Railway Cottages were featured in the Observer Magazine 2020.

Visitors can picnic in Avenue Gardens which is adjacent to 2 Dorset Rd or visit Alexandra Palace near by.

We re-landscaped our town garden in 2013, transforming it's plain incline to individual terraces, mixing an aura of spirituality with a country atmosphere.

The mature trees of Alexander Palace's The Grove lend the garden a rather spectacular backdrop and this together with water features, pot & chimney planting, summerhouse and decking, provides many areas to sit and contemplate, making the garden unique.

We've ‘greened the grey’ by getting rid of the solid crazy paving, making it a stylish space where nature has come back. In 2019 we redesigned the rear garden due to the collapse of an apple tree. This meant a complete re-think/re-design of the top terrace. The garden has been featured in Garden News magazine and an article in the Ham & High.

We try to create lots of small ideas that our visitors can create at home.

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

Unusual architectural features inc Oriental tea house overlooking carp pond. Mega plant sale and open studio with ceramics and cards (please bring cash). Gold winner of Haringey in Bloom 2022 'Best Back Garden'.

2017 Featured on 'All Gardens Great and Small ' More 4, Presented by Dee Hart Dyke.
Susan taught her to throw pots for her daughter Miranda Hart in our studio, and she helped Earl finish a ceramic head to adorn her garden wall.

2015 Chosen by Alan Titchmarsh as one of HIS, favourites for ITV 'Britain's Best Back Gardens' Maureen Lipman’s favourite garden, described by Harpers & Queen as among the 'most inspirational' in England, is an evolving creation of its artist owners.
Reclaimed from bits of adjoining waste ground purchased over twenty years, the garden reveals its secrets in a series of visual surprises.
2013 'LIBERACE TERRACE' complete with candelabra, installed in place of a bare fence.
In 2016, we removed boring shrubs from a dark corner. Earl constructed an ORIENTAL TEA HOUSE with spectacular views over the garden and carp pond.
As soon as we sat inside it a feeling of tranquility came over us. Visitors have the same experience. Magpies nest in a tree above. It is supposed to bring 'GOOD LUCK' They can be very noisy neighbours and are often joined by a party of parakeets. However, the magpies discovered our flourishing carnivorous plants and decimated them to get at the dead flies! The plants are recovering in the Greenhouse.

In 2021 the bridge Earl put together in the sitting room from bits of an old bed began to 'creak'. He and Craig Giovanelli, our builder friend collaborated to construct a NEW bridge, also from recycled materials, but much stronger. The FISH love it, and so does our dog, Phoebe, the fearless!
A blue marbled columned temple with 22ct gold lustred ceramic capitals designed and constructed by Earl Hyde nestles behind a weeping willow. Huge hostas spring out of antique chimney pots, and unusual containers overflow with imaginative plant combinations. Humour and colour abound! Earl's American Gothic 'Bates Motel' garden shed, inspired the 'medieval' wall set with a stained glass window salvaged from the porch of the local Methodist Church demolished over 25 years ago.
Behind the working studio, reclaimed from tarmac, lies the oriental area. Turquoise Raku-tiled mirrored walls topped with red trellis conceal the plant nursery with its large 'red' greenhouse.
Our PLANT SALE is VERY popular. Plants raised here do well in local London clay conditions. Susan is also a bit of a plantaholic!
A trompe l'oeil mirrored archway leads the imagination towards unexplored spaces. Many remark on the peaceful atmosphere, and how the visit refreshes their spirits. Our garden has featured twice on 'BBC Gardeners' World'
'Me and My Garden'...explored Earl's Gothic Bates Motel Shed....they were doing a regular spot on 'SHEDS'...and ours is rather unique.. Earl's Domain!

In 2021 ITV news featured Earl MOWING the lawn to herald 'NO MOW MAY' ( bit of irony there! )
A quiet corner was the setting for Anita Rani to conduct an interview for 'Saved by a Stranger' BBC2, and we even did a VIRTUAL tour for members of Garden Club Nigeria. All made welcome donations to the NGS.
Our statue of the Chinese Storm God mounted on his steed was supposed to keep storms at bay. He failed miserably. and had to take refuge in our conservatory!
We are now looking for a statue of The Sun God!
Happily, 'LIBERACE TERRACE' makes us laugh whatever the weather, despite Earl's busts of Beethoven scowling from the walls

While filming ITV 'Britain's Best Gardens', Alan Titchmarsh helped Earl with Beethoven's hair. Do come and see the result. He usually has a 'Bad Hair Day'. NOT ALAN! Our ceramics studio will be open for visitors to browse.

2015 saw the setting up of our 'Stairway to the Stars'... not as originally planned to replace a dead apple tree supporting a magnificent clematis, but as a leap of faith alongside the studio.
The Clematis is now supported by a HORSE. Guess what? A NEW apple tree has sprung up alongside the metal horse bearing an abundance of little apples.

Our garden is featured in 'GREAT GARDENS OF LONDON' Pub. Francis Lincoln...lovely photos by Marianne Majerus taken BEFORE the stairway to Heaven and Tea House were constructed.
also 'The London Garden A-Z' Pub. Metro...Lovely photos too by Susi Koch
Nov 2017 : Article by Matthew Biggs (GQT) in the RHS Magazine 'The Garden'...photos by Nicola Stocken.

Nothing replaces 'BEING THERE'. Do come and find out for yourself
A WARM welcome awaits,whatever the weather.

Pre-booking Optional, Please click here to go to the NGS booking page to pre-book your tickets

A very sunny, 120 foot south-facing garden, planted for colour. Brick-edged borders and over-flowing containers packed with masses of traditional herbaceous and perennial cottage garden plants and shrubs. Shady area at the bottom evolving as much by happy accident as by design. Uneven ground in places. Water feature Greenhouse bursting with cuttings. Lots of places to sit and think, chat or doze.

Set up on open day with lots of places to sit and enjoy home made teas . An ideal example of a traditional 'TEA GARDEN' set amidst vibrant cottage garden planting, with hidden shady nooks to explore. Sale of honey & Bee products.

New experimental DRY Garden 8' square .No watering intended .Visitors may admire or despair at the outcome!

The very long garden is entered via steep but safe steps, a good viewing place for the living Sedum roof which covers the greenhouse. After a first section where a centrepiece fountain and mature Mediterranean and Southern hemisphere shrubs and trees are framed by a hedge, (the box, a recent victim of the box caterpillar, now replaced by rare Corokia, Santolina and Ilex crenata,) a meandering path leads to a wider more intimate space.

The recent acquisition of a 600 square meters of garden extension constitutes half the size of the existing garden again. It is being developed and redesigned in a sustainable way, using all the available material. Logs from felled trees are now framing paths and borders, and branches have been shredded to provide mulch.The new site will include an Exotic border, a Woodland area, Prairie planting and a raised bed supported by Conifer logs displaying Mediterranean shrubs and trees. For further information about this exciting new project please click here