Chris Crowder, the current head gardener, describes the garden in his book The Gardens at Levens (2005) as ‘a fantastical gathering of giant green overblown mushrooms, leaning loaves, tall, teetering towers and ballooning bulbous blimps of yew, with smaller, almost human forms and figures in rounded box beneath them, caught, freeze-framed, in an absurd dance, their contorted movement stilled in some surreal Disney or Daliesque scene’. 

Every year, the mammoth task of clipping and shaping the topiary begins on the 1st of September and continues until Christmas and often beyond. The best time to see it is in the Spring, before the new growth has had a chance to develop. Levens has led the way in establishing World Topiary Day, a May event now celebrated by topiary gardens around the world.

Although the garden is famous for its topiary, there is much else to see. One striking feature is the Beech Circle. It lies at the heart of the garden and divides and defines it, forming a hub from which radiate four quartered pathways leading to different parts of the garden. The ancient hedge has spread outwards and upwards to such an extent that it is now over five meters, both in height and girth. Other features include long herbaceous borders themed in different colour palettes, as well as a rose garden and a fountain garden. Levens also lays claim to the oldest recorded ha-ha in the country, mentioned in family papers from 1695. It was created by Beaumont in about 1693 to provide a barrier between the gardens and the meadowland beyond leading down to the River Kent.