Magical Thatched Cottage Garden in West Dorset

Welcome to a 300-year-old thatched cottage in West Dorset, England, where florist and set designer Tattie Isles has built a home and garden that feels genuinely, wonderfully alive.

The house was originally two workmen's cottages, joined into one about 25 years ago — which is why it still has two identical front doors, two staircases and two fireplaces. Tattie and her husband Fred found it just as the world was reopening after lockdown, and the moment they walked through the gate they knew. As Tattie puts it, the house chose them.

Outside is where this place really sings. A wisteria arch inherited from the previous custodian now runs wild with a rambling rose. A canvas marquee stays up all summer long, hosting the flower school Tattie runs from the property, where students arrive from across the UK and as far as Australia to spend a day or two working with their hands. There's an old shepherd's hut with a wood burner, walls slowly filling up with hand-painted British moths. The water comes straight from the well through a pump into the taps.

And then there are the animals. Peacocks, guinea fowl, chickens, doves, horses and dogs all share the place, plus a rotating cast of rescued wildlife — including a hand-fed baby jackdaw named Greystoke. Tattie is honest about the trade-off: the peacocks eat every flower she loves, so a conventional garden is impossible. She'd take the peacocks anyway.

Inside, the same philosophy holds. Low beamed ceilings painted with returning house martins. Murals up the staircase, added to in the evenings while the children sleep, so they wake to find something new. Willow baskets everywhere. An Aga that never goes off, drying wellies and warming children. A round kitchen table because you can always squeeze one more person around a round table. Nothing here is designed. It's collected, layered, mended and lived in.

Tattie has worked with flowers for sixteen years, creating installations everywhere from the Chelsea Flower Show main gate to weddings in Siena. But her clearest belief is about soul: a home only feels alive when you can tell who lives there.