Follow Miss Jekyll into the garden

Buying a newly built home presents a gardener with a special challenge.

Anyone daunted by the prospect of making a garden from scratch can take comfort from the fact that this set of circumstances prompted one of the most illustrious careers in the history of gardening.

As a young woman, Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) studied art and might have become known for her paintings rather than her major influence on garden design, but for ...