A charming Kentish farmhouse, its beams fashioned from ships’ timbers from Chatham dockyard. Bedrooms are simple, traditional, lovely, one with a four-poster bed. Walls are pale or pure white, bedheads floral and furniture antique; the bedroom in the Victorian extension has a barrel ceiling and two big windows that look eastwards to the glorious Kentish Weald. The dining room has a lovely old log fire. Expect free-range eggs from the farm, homemade jams and local honey for breakfast. Sue used to run a nursery at Rock Farm that built up a considerable reputation. She knows which plants grow best in these alkaline conditions, and they perform for her. An evergreen Berberis stenophylla provides a striking backdrop to the herbaceous border – 90-foot long. The bog garden below the house is filled with candelabra primulas, trollius, astilbes, day lilies, gunnera, lythrum, filipendulas and arum lilies flowering from April to July. In a further area – around two natural ponds – contrasting conifer foliage interplanted with herbaceous perennials is set against a backdrop of Kentish woodland. A delightful spot.
