Built by Edward Lutyens, this is the house where famed garden writer Christopher Lloyd lived for much of his life. 

Here he experimented, practiced his craft, honed skills and of course then wrote about the outcomes.

The gardens are now a testament to this man's great skill and vision and are now run by the Great Dixter Charitable Trust as an historic house, a garden, a centre of education, and a place of pilgrimage for garden lovers and horticulturists from around the world.

But Great Dixter is also a prime example of 'Quaint Englishness', where cottage style takes precedence over precision. 

On first sight it looks to be formally contained, but the garden style is, in reality, quite informal with paths meandering, climbers dangling, annuals leaning, shrubs bulging and hedges trimmed as if with one eye closed (e.g. lines that meander). 

But the effect is quite charming and makes you question why we need precision in a garden in the first place. 

It is this quality that is perhaps the most refreshing and beguiling, though some purists may 'tut-tut' at the lack of conspicuous discipline.

Another very distinctive feature is that the house and garden are inextricably linked. 

Make a circuit of the house and you have covered the entire gardens. Views from one reward with views of the other with most picture postcard photos of the gardens including the house or part of it.

Lloyd recognised that the English meadow had suffered enormously in recent decades, with so much falling to agriculture or building. 

He was a great promoter of the need for natural meadow as part of our sustainability and Great Dixter has large areas dedicated to self-seeded carpets of bucolic loveliness.  They are generally delightful, though in combination with topiary is, in perhaps questionable.

The Sunk(en) Garden is a pure delight, jam packed with colour from borders and potted clusters around the central pond that teems with green and life of all sorts.

There are many intimate, walled or hedged-in garden spaces, too many to note in detail but suffice to say that English garden annuals, perennials and small shrubs are on abundant display and intermixed.

The planting often overwhelms in riots of texture, form and colour, but as you push your way along narrow pathways, more vistas open of even more exuberant colour and the visitor just has to succumb to Lloyd's concepts of garden pleasure. 

Most notably he was not a fan of colour segregation so expect all colours, everywhere. In fact Lloyd has credited nature's self-seeding with some of his best colour combinations.

Linking pathways are generally paved with beautiful York stone flags that were ripped up from London streets to make way for tarmac. 

All we can say is that Dixter is a great beneficiary and although self-seeded flowers often grow in the joints, the overall effect is pure country delight.

This is a high maintenance garden and plants are being added and removed on a regular basis. 

You will therefore be bound to find some areas as 'work-in-progress' but the visitor can't help but understand the ethos of Lloyds approach and therefore forgives. 

It is as if the whole garden is a painter's palette, with new colours, textures and form being permanently experimented with.

The restless artist continues to paint, even long after his death. It is perhaps the ultimate legacy.