Gardening

 

Nocton Open Gardens 2015
The story so far....

On a warm summer's evening, 13 enthusiastic gardeners met to talk about the possibility of opening our gardens in 2015.

We agreed we are all interested in the idea and decided the weekend to have our inaugural event  should be:-

• Saturday 20th / Sunday 21st June 2015

There are pros and cons to having gardens open just for one or both days but on the whole we felt we should aim for both. Having a biannual event is considered the best way forward.

Why do we want to do it?

• To share our love of gardens and gardening with others.
• To raise funds for our community through the entrance fee and sale of refreshments.

All local villages who have opened gardens this year charged £3 and sold refreshments too. We agreed to publicise our event in aid of Village Charities and to decide upon which cause to support nearer the time.

What standard should be aim for?
We agreed this should be a collective and something enjoyable for us all to do.  Some gardens will be small and others large. Nocton Gardens have such diversity that visitors will enjoy seeing something of everything amateur gardeners have to offer. Most gardeners who have expressed interest in opening their gardens so far are from the older part of the village and we hope we can extend the route by more gardeners wishing to join in.

There will of course need to be a coherent route for visitors to take their tour of the Open Gardens which could include other points of interest from the arts trail.

Do we need any funds and how will we promote it?
We need a programme with a map to be printed and signs to be made for each garden. We discussed ways to begin telling people about the Open Gardens and the new Gardening Club.
Nearer the time we can use our contacts and newsletters which should all be free however there will be a charge for the promotional materials such as signs and banners so we will be seeking some start up funding for this.

Where are we now?
It's still early days but whilst we are closing down our gardens for winter we need to plan for what we want to see blooming in June.
You may be keen to include your garden in the event and we will be pleased to hear from you. If we have too many gardens we can share the load between the two days or even consider keeping some for later years.

If you would like to be involved in the planning or help to run this exciting event please do contact me and I will include you in our next Open Gardens Meeting to be held in the new year.

Julie Partridge (amateur gardener)
Thyme Cottage
jpartridge369@btinternet.com