News

Bernaville hosts August childrens trail

Popular Exeter nursery Bernaville is running a free Children’s Summer Trail throughout August from 10am to 4pm. It features an interactive trail through the Devon nursery with lots of interesting and educational things for children to see. After completing the trail, children will receive a goody bag and sticker and be given a free terracotta pot to take home and decorate, which they can then enter into our prize draw to win a family ticket to Woodlands.

No booking is needed but children must be accompanied at all times.

Secret garden opens for the last time

An enchantingly secret garden which stretches alongside the Oxford Canal on the border of Fenny Compton is opening this year for the final time. The garden, at the Granary, which is open over the August Bank Holiday on Sunday, 27th and Monday, 28th August has sweeping views of the Dassett Hills, its herbaceous beds of riotous colour house plants rare and popular – each with its own name-tag for the serious plants person - a cascading water feature, and herb garden with dramatic sweet pea spire.

Rosemoor’s sensational rose gardens open until end of July

A trip to RHS Rosemoor is a must for visitors this summer as the garden celebrates with a ‘Rose Festival’ through to July 30th.

Boasting one of the UK’s largest collections of roses, Rosemoor is home to two dedicated rose gardens, bringing together 200 different cultivars , from cottage garden climbers to bright and beautiful container plants.

Britain’s first hotel gardening school

Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat-Saisons has announced its own gardening school. Named after the Oxfordshire hotel’s charismatic chef and patron, The Raymond Blanc Gardening School will impart secrets and expertise from the team behind the two-acre kitchen garden, which supplies more than 90 varieties of vegetable and 70 types of herb for Blanc’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant.

Tetbury show continues to grow

The Gloucestershire town of Tetbury is staging its annual Summer Show, which incorporates the Tetbury Flower Show on Sunday, 13th August. The event has a strong gardening theme throughout and has been growing every year and the show still clings to the traditional with the marquee boasting a finery of flowers, fruit and vegetables all grown and displayed by local exhibitors. Also on show will be many domestic offerings including cakes, sponges and jams to name just a few along with floral artistry and displays of arts and crafts.

Alresford Society celebrates its 70th anniversary

Alresford & District Horticulture Society has been established in the town for 70 years and is celebrating its anniversary! The
society existed between the wars as a garden and vegetable club but its exact make-up is not known.

Counting down to new two-day autumn harvest extravaganza at Forde Abbey!

Toby Buckland’s new Garden & Harvest Festival at Forde Abbey, near Chard on the weekend of 16th and 17th September, will be
taking over the Abbey and stunning grounds to present a two-day celebration of the harvest, featuring more than 150 specialist
nurseries, artisan crafts, food and drink producers.

Prior Park recruits youngest head gardener

The youngest head gardener in the National Trust has started worked at Prior Park Landscape Garden in Bath.

Alice Palfrey, 29, already has seven years of National Trust gardening. She comes to her role with experience of looking after Prior Park, and enthusiasm to take the garden forward and continue the process of restoring it to its 1764 state and the time of creator Ralph Allen’s death.

Alice’s introduction to gardens and tree work came as a teenager with weekends spent helping her father, an arboricultural professional, with tasks in private gardens..’

Basic botany for gardeners

Bristol Botanical Garden is holding a one day course on basic botany on Saturday, 22nd July. The course is based on the plant world being a magical one which constantly surprises and amazes with its diversity and adaptability. Knowing how to grow a plant can be improved by knowing where its natural environment is and what family it belongs to.

Ashe Park - new gardens opens for July visitors

The extensive new gardens in the grounds of a Ashe Park, the Georgian country house and estate, opens for the NGS in July . There are parkland and specimen trees, woodland walks, large contemporary potager, lime avenue and several newly planted areas.

Teas and refreshments available, dogs on leads are welcome, parking available.

The developing garden is, becoming established with further planting initiatives in progress and it is becoming a popular garden with visitors.On Sunday, 30th July there will be a Jane Austen theme.

Country Gardener

Widely regarded as the authority on gardening in the south west