A 17-year labour of love has resulted in a neglected kitchen garden at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, being named garden of the year by the Historic Houses Association.

The five-acre plot has been transformed into a series of outdoor rooms, each with its own character, by Lord Cholmondeley, owner of the house near King’s Lynn. The revived garden is a memorial to his grandmother, Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, who died in 1989. The award will be presented to him at Houghton on May 12. It is sponsored by the association and Christie’s and is designed to recognise the importance of gardens with outstanding horticultural and public appeal, either in their own right or as a setting for an historic house.

The 18th-century family home set in 1,000 acres of parkland is the centrepiece of the Houghton Estate covering a total of 4,500 acres and one of the largest in East Anglia.

The house was commissioned by Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister and completed in 1734. But the kitchen garden had fallen into disrepair when Lord Cholmondeley decided on a renovation in 1991.

He said: “The difficulty was to create variety and interest in a flat space with no architectural and water features; however, we found the solution in a succession of rooms divided by hedges, rather like Sissinghurst, so that visitors would be constantly surprised by views through narrow entrances and discover areas with very different atmospheres.”

A scheme of yew-hedged parterres has been created to form the room outlines, the whole enclosed by the 8ft-high original walls of the garden.

Robert Miller, agent for the estate, said: “The garden was divided into quarters and then sub-divided to provide a wide variety of various areas of interest to visitors. We get about 20,000 visitors a year and are therefore delighted to have won the award.”

One section has an Italian theme with an arrangement of pleached limes and plum trees planted in a geometric pattern with a rustic temple complete with Tuscan pillars.

The main Mediterranean garden features a pool, displays of lavender and rosemary and has the Marchioness’s initials picked out in swirling box hedges.

Another segment, originally an orchard, is now a dedicated fruit and vegetable plot. There is a glasshouse filled with orchids against the north wall, a croquet lawn, and a rose garden whose layout is based on William Kent’s ceiling design for the white drawing room in the main house.

The wall garden, set in a landscape designed in the 18th century, has also been restored.

— Houghton is open to visitors on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 11am-5.30pm. The house is also open for viewing, 1.30pm-5pm.

www.houghtonhall.com