Template:Courier-OCT-24-17a

GARDENERS ENJOY VARIETY IN A SERIES OF VISITS

Gardeners brought together by membership of the Claygate Gardening Society not only enjoy events and talks, generous discounts at some village shops and garden centres further afield—even a 50 per cent discount on seeds from Dobies Garden Supplies—but visits to beautiful gardens, all within easy reach of Claygate.

The Society ran a full programme of visits this year, including three “double bills” in June, July and September, that took members to Sissinghurst and Hole Park in Kent; Fittleworth House and Woolbeding in West Sussex; and Great Dixter and Pashley Manor in East Sussex.

Each pair combined gardens of very different styles, both National Trust and privately owned. Hole Park's interesting mix of formal and informal spaces, contrasted with Sissinghurst's weathered red-brick buildings and exuberant tumbling borders. The private gardens to Fittleworth House are of a more modest style and scale to which regular gardeners could relate, while Woolbeding gardens feature richly planted borders in a formal, manicured setting.

Great Dixter overflows with clashing colours and a vast number of plants, while the privately owned 11-acre gardens at Pashley Manor are more traditionally “managed” to form a quintessential English country garden.

Don’t miss out on next year’s visits and other benefits by joining the society. It has already put in place a programme of talks for next year, featuring the Piet Oudolf garden at Wisley; fuchsias; ideas and advice on vegetable growing; Victorian head gardeners; and Women writers and their gardens. For details, see https://www.claygate-gardening.org/.