, designed by Hobhouse in 1997 Hobhouse walked through
Tuscany and taught herself gardening by examples of the Tuscan villa gardens she saw; she went on to be a garden writer and designer, publishing many books on the subject. She started work at
Hadspen House, Somerset until leaving in 1979. The garden's former designer
Phyllis Reiss was said to have had a strong influence of Hobhouse. Until 1993, she was in charge of Tintinhull House's gardens also in
Somerset. Her publications include;
Colour in Your Garden,
Plants in Garden History,
Penelope Hobhouse on Gardening, ''Penelope Hobhouse's Garden Designs
, and Penelope Hobhouse's Natural Planting''. Hobhouse is "a fixture in the minds of gardeners who love
rooms and
bones – the paths and walls and satisfying verticals that form the skeleton of a garden." She has designed gardens in England, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States. They include a garden for
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, at
Walmer Castle in Kent, 'The Country Garden' for the
Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, a renaissance-style garden in Italy, the Upper Walled Garden at
Aberglasney, in
Carmarthenshire, a herb garden for the
New York Botanical Garden, She is an associate editor of
Gardens Illustrated magazine. She has taught at the
University of Essex. She then lived in
Bettiscombe, Dorset until 2008. She moved in September 2008 back to Hadspen, where she started a new garden outside her quarters which are in the yard. Her new garden is a south facing and enclosure at the back of some converted stables surrounded by mature box hedging. ==Family==