Open Garden Cheshire 2016. We’ve sown, propagated, potted up, watered, pruned, clipped, mown, mulched and planted over the past few months and now we’re ready to open! July 2nd and 3rd, 2pm-5pm. All we need now is the weather……Dodging the showers, the forecast isn’t too good this year. We’re made of tough stuff and well used to the not so-great-weather! Putting together the plant table is key as we have a great variety of plants that we have propagated over the past year. We have also a fabulous selection donated by friends. The homemade cakes of course are the best !
Preparing the Plant Sale Table – Open Garden Cheshire
This is our 5th year to run an open garden in aid of The Little Way Charity which helps to build bungalows for the homeless in India. I have spent a year in SE Asia and have witnessed some terrible poverty. At the time it made me feel very helpless…as a tourist we are advised that giving money to beggars in the street only exacerbates the problem. So how better to help than at home, were our money raised here is worth so much more in India. For each £700 we raise, the Indian authorities put up the same amount and this is enough to build a 2 bedroom bungalow for a 4 person family. The thing is, we have fun doing it, so there are only winners!!
The first day and the rain is relentless. Only the toughened gardeners remain (with some very nice umbrellas)…..Open garden cheshire
Sunday and the sun is out! Setting out the delicious cakes…..Open garden cheshire
Enjoying the cakes – Open Garden Cheshire
Thanks for all the help !…..Open garden cheshire
And just a few photos taken in the quiet of the day…..
Pinus mugo raises above a clipped box heart with a beautiful scented rambling rose francis e leicester trained along supports
Soft foliage colours and textures….The rounded head of the shrub catalpa bignoniodes overhangs the deep purple cotinus…. Acer palmatum dissectum with variegated hostas….Pink/mauve flowers of eryssimum bowles mauve will continue through till the first frosts
Clipped box and gold lonicera nitidia form an evergreen structure through which colourful astilbes and lythrum dropmore purple grow. A soft (well behaved) grass hakonechloa macra softens the edges of the box. A pleached liquidambar adds a little privacy in the background
The early sun catches the dwarf junipers and lavender grosso. The air is full of scent from the mass of rambling,climbing and shrub roses…Rambling rector, ld Braithwaite, Constance Spry, Gertrude Jekyll, Francis E Leiceister.
This year in our open garden we have managed to raise £735 which is more than enough for a bungalow for a family of four! Well done everybody!
Find out more http://littlewayassociation.com/