LOL, Carol! Yes, the assistants are important, even if they're not so good looking.

Do you have photos from your trip? Did you use a tour company, or go it alone? I've been dying to do an English garden tour, but it never seems to happen. On the other hand, when I come home from any trip, I seem to have photos of nothing but gardens! It's so interesting to visit botanic gardens and even small neighborhood parks in different countries - I tell myself that garden style is as important an aspect of a culture as the architecture and other arts, and I'd really (if secretly) rather visit gardens than museums.

Back home ... I think you can try to control views, even without the acreage to create gorgeous views. Perimeter planting with 'appropriate' gaps is my goal, and this is also my worst problem - finding plants that will grow to, say 18 feet, to block the view of neighbors' houses, but not too much taller, to prevent claustrophobia. It's a real challenge to get the appropriate plants to grow around the perimeter, where there are problems like maples (serious shade and root competition), solid wood fences (which rob both rain and sun for smaller plants) and lack of my attention (who can remember to water and weed the unseen?).

Please tell us more about your trip!

Just keep remembering that England is a whole different world to garden in. Must be nice, but not the climate you are given to deal with.

I grow under lights to get plants I won't be able to buy locally (and for the fun of growing from seed). I am not at all sure that growing plants from seed produces better looking plants in the garden than you could get from transplanting purchased plants. I don't see it myself.

Asarum, I'd like to grow seedlings myself because I've experienced a few disasters (blight etc.) from starting with plants bought at big-box stores and some garden centers. They might not look better but I think they'd survive better.
Diggingthedirt, I'm trying to grow just enough short trees in my wetlands to not see the trailers further down, but not to block our view of the ocean. Of course it depends on where you stand: shift 6 ft. to the left and there are the trailers again. So part of my attempts involved making the middle distance of the view, i.e., the slightly closer view, more eye-catching. You all may remember when I wrote about the future giant windmills that will be marring our view some day, and how to mask them out. Same problem with the trailers, except the trailers are only about 8 ft. high, and the windmills about 450 ft. high. Oh well, I'm probably trying to do too much with a piece of land that's 100 ft. wide and 800 ft. long and that has neighbors.

I'll start a separate thread "What I learned from English Gardens" with pix.

Carol