Close your eyes and think of paradise. Open them and you could well have spent the last few moments in Alnwick Garden, an inspirational combination of traditional garden design and contemporary features.

The ongoing, multi-million-pound project is the dream of the Duchess of Northumberland. Her vision was to build a garden accessible to everyone that could stimulate and educate.

It has been created on a plot of land in the grounds of Alnwick Castle where leading designers have weaved their magic since 1750 when the 1st Duke of Northumberland employed locally-born celebrated gardener Capability Brown to landscape his grounds.

For a hundred years the garden grew and swayed with the times, seeing hothouses and exotic plants come and go, flowerbeds and Italian flare move in and out of fashion. In the late 1800s the garden was at its zenith, boasting a conservatory, pine houses, yew topiary hedges and five grape houses. It must have been magnificent.

Sadly, due to the untimely intervention of the two world wars, the garden was abandoned to descend into dereliction. In 1996, there was no saving it as a restoration project, so the Duchess set about recreating her own garden.

Now it boasts the Grand Cascade, the largest water feature of its kind in the UK. TV's Ground Force gardener Charlie Dimmock was indeed proud of it! There is also an ornamental, walled garden, a rose garden and a newly-opened poison garden.

The piece de resistance is a fantastic treehouse, which is proving a magnet for children all over the country.

Find out more about Alnwick Garden, click here.