Nosing Around our Neighbourhood

We are lucky enough to have a day every June each year where families from our town open up their gardens for people to view. We LOVE it. It is social, inspirational and a good walk.

We started with a neighbour in our street who we know well. Her and her husband's garden is much bigger than you would expect with a beautiful bendy tree in the centre. The children ran straight down to her fruit and veg patch behind the fence to find some redcurrants and gooseberries.

They have a trickling water feature and lots of little secret places which we enjoyed looking at.

A neighbour to this large garden has a tiny courtyard garden in comparison. The sign said 'Stand on the step and peep over into Tracey's secret garden'. Tracey felt people would not want to look at her tiny garden but to see what can be achieved in a tiny north facing courtyard was inspirational.

We really wanted to see the next one. It is a house right in the high street which we pass daily but we have never seen the garden because is has a brick wall around it.

 It was amazing, very different to the others but right up our street as it were. They had three beehives, chickens, a huge vegetable plot and lots of fruit trees alongside a wildlife pond, bog garden and flower borders.

The next one is one of our favourites from past visits. The owners of this garden are more in the expert bracket but are so friendly when we visit. There is a pond, yoga studio, succulent house and a myriad of little pathways. There are some elements of structure which I would like to copy in our new house build garden from this space. The photos say it all for this one.

This rose is called Ferdinand Picard

The next one was a new one on the trail - a real surprise. This garden is on a newer estate of houses and we had to walk through the owners house to get to the rear garden but it was such a surprise to see such a huge amount of planting in such a small space.

The lady was lovely with the children and said they could go up to the back of the garden and sit on her reading bench in the little arbour. She said she read in there most nights. The garden was really considered a room within their house because two sides of the garden had french doors which opened out onto it. It was a perfect day to showcase this with warm sunny weather.

Finally, we made our way to a garden which was described in the program as terraced with water features. The girls really liked this garden. I did too because the views across the valley were great but it was a bit neat for me. Big Sis took over with the camera in this garden to capture the water lillies. 

You may have noticed the absence of our man in these photos. He was all set to come along and then the sheep shearer phoned and said he could do the sheep so he had to be seconded elsewhere. On his return we told him all about each garden with enthusiasm and great detail. We are brimming with new ideas.

Do you have an open garden day where you live?

Jo xxxxxx