Exploring Gardens 2022
Exploring Gardens 2022
About
Est 2016
Exploring Gardens is a group visiting different gardens on the first Thursday of each month. ( weather dependent) If you would like to be part of this group please contact either Elaine or Janine.
Please note that for various reasons not all visits fall on the first Thursday of the month so please check the dates. For all visits we will meet at the gardens at 2pm.The maximum cost per garden is £10 per head, which generally goes straight to one of the NGS chosen charities. This sum covers the garden entry and tea & cake.
This was our first visit of the year to a small garden in Tadworth owned by Elizabeth and Keith, a lovely elderly couple who have been gardening here all their adult lives. They were very keen horticulturists entering shows with their rare narcissi and cyclamen bulbs. Never stinting on the bulb costs their flowers are unusual and beautiful.
There were 17 of us, a good turnout for a cold blustery afternoon. Keith was a interesting host giving us top tips to improve growing our own bulbs. The garden had been a lot larger, extending to a back garden twice the size with fruit tress but half the garden was sold off a few years ago for housing.
Tea and delicious home made cakes by Elizabeth were served in their conservatory, £170 was collected for charity and a good catch up was had with friends. All in all, a great afternoon out.
Elaine Belt
Coverwood Lakes, Ewhurst
12.05.22
Oakleigh & Wildwood, Frimley Green
10.06.22
On Friday 10th June at 2pm, 13 of us met at Oakleigh and followed onto Wildwood, NGS open gardens in Frimley Green. These gardens, one long with serpentine boarders and the other (through a gate at the rear) smaller and very much a wildlife garden. The gardens were stuffed full of plants leaving no room for weeds! The wooden half barrel pond at Oakleigh had frogs enjoying the tiny pond making it a haven for them and water insects. Wildwood had a small natural pond with a mass of frogs enjoying the afternoon sun. Lots of birdhouses were under the eves and the twittering fledgling could be heard all around. Also, an abundance of highly scented roses were everywhere.
Tea was delightful served on vintage tablecloths and china and cakes on cake stands all sitting small tables around the garden. This was probably the highlight of the afternoon sitting in the late afternoon sun. We could have sat there longer chatting but it was time to make our way home. Angela,Graham and Annie, with their tea helpers, made us very welcome and a plant sale , always a treat to go home with something, was a bonus.
Elaine Belt
Bridge End Cottage, Ockham
07.07.22
Oaklands Farm, Shipley
04.08.22
Yesterday a group of 16 from The Garden Explorers Group were given a very warm welcome by Zsa, the owner and her three dogs, Hungarian visuals, to this farmhouse and farm in Shipley, near Horsham. The farmhouse has a country garden designed and mostly painted in 2010. The oak lined drive opens out to a courtyard with pleached hornbeams and many planted pots. The garden area is about 2 acres with herbaceous boarders containing various shrubs, roses ( one being Rosa Darcy Bussell, a beautifully scented velvet red rose), clematis and a very fine magnolia grandiflora. We also walked around her greenhouse and veggie plot. Zsa also keeps hens, a lot of them pretty bantams roaming around the garden and an aviary of zebra finches and quails. Sadly, the garden had taken its toll with the dry, hot weather this summer.
Zsa was a very entertaining host showing us around her garden. We had tea in the garden with a choice of four different homemade cakes all delicious, decorated with flowers from the garden. £160 was collected for Zsa's chosen charity, Crawley Open House, which gives a home and support for homeless people. We all had another great afternoon out!
Elaine Belt
Knowle Grange, Shere
01.09.22
Winkworth Arboretum, Godalming
20.10.22
Although not a garden as such, our last walk this year in Winkworth Arboretum, Godalming was a splendid end to a great year of garden visits. The weather had been kind to us on all our visits through the year and although we had some rain, this day the sun shone at times bringing a glow to the changing trees. Some leaves had now turned beautiful Autumn colours, other trees had beautiful seedbeds and some were flowering out of their normal season, all bringing interest to our walk. We eventually arrived at the boathouse when the rain came down heavier for a time. But we were undercover so no problem. We stood on the balcony admiring the view over the lake. What a serene place. On arriving back at the entrance we were ready for our customary tea and cake under an awning before setting off homeward. We are already looking forward to our next year's garden exploring. And what a great place Winkworth is!
Elaine Belt.
