Heale House and its eight acres of beautiful gardens lie beside the river Avon at Middle Woodford, just north of Salisbury, Wiltshire. Much of the house is unchanged since King Charles II hid here in 1651.

When visitors step into the garden at Heale House they are immediately transported into a magical and varied paradise of running streams and exuberant planting that they return to time and again to experience its many different moods throughout the seasons.

The timeless atmosphere at Heale is the result of the creative endeavours of many generations of the Rasch family, who still live in the house, each inspired to leave their mark on a place through which the sparkling tributaries of the river Avon flow. Trout filled streams crossing under the authentic Japanese tea house and below the red Nikko bridge meander through the woodland garden, a rich gardener's paradise.

From early spring when sheets of aconites and snowdrops carpet the ground, to late summer when the crescendo of unusual planting explodes, the garden is in a constant state of flux. In the vegetable garden decorative apple tunnels separate the beds that still supply the house.

Meadows of spring bulbs are home to a new collection of magnolias, and colour-themed borders add contemporary drama to a garden that seems lost in time and is a continual source of inspiration to its owners and the visitors it never fails to charm.

'An entrancing place to visit, the elegant house poised in a many layered garden of great beauty'

Anna Pavord - The gardening correspondent for the Independant