National Open Garden Scheme
Late spring is a great time to visit our gardens and we have gardens opening all over Leicestershire during May.
The month starts with a new garden opening on Bank Holiday Monday 1 May from 11-4 pm, at 2 Manor Farm Mews, Main Street, Queniborough LE7 3EA. This is a beautifully designed garden of a quarter acre. The borders are filled with a variety of bird, bee and butterfly-friendly planting. They are surrounded by formal lawns, topiary, hedging and a small woodland shady retreat. On Sunday 7 May Burrough Hall, Somerby Road, Burrough on the Hill, Melton Mowbray, LE14 2QZ is open from 2-5pm. Originally a hunting lodge, the house has a large established Wisteria covering the front of the Hall.
More gardens……
Over the weekend of 13 and 14 May there are four gardens opening. Hedgehog Hall, Loddington Road, Tilton on the Hill, LE7 9DE. 8 Hinckley Road, Stoke Golding, Nuneaton, CV13 6DU. Mountain Ash, 140 Ulverscroft Lane, Newtown Linford, LE6 0AJ. And Westview at 1 St Thomas’s Road, Great Glen, LE8 9EH.
The latter is a small, walled cottage garden stacked full of interest and unusual planting. The garden includes a formal box parterre, a courtyard garden, a small wildlife pond, a greenhouse, and productive fruit and vegetable garden. The garden’s owners are beekeepers and welcome visits from fellow apiarists as well as plant enthusiasts.
On 20 May Goadby Marwood Hall, Melton Mowbray, LE14 4LN opens from 10.30-5.30. This is a large garden with a chain of five lakes (covering ten acres) with swans and flowering spring blossom trees.
The last in May
The last garden to open in May is Westbrooke House on Sunday 28 May from 10-4.30 at 52 Scotland Road, Little Bowden, Market Harborough, LE16 8AX. The gardens comprise six acres in total with a tree- lined driveway of mature limes and giant redwoods. There is a walled flower garden, walled kitchen garden, fernery, lower garden, wildlife pond, spring garden, lawns, woodland paths and a meadow with a wildflower area, ha-ha and hornbeam avenue.
Enjoy visiting one of our gardens knowing that you are donating to nursing and cancer charities. In 2022, the National Garden Scheme donated over £3.11 million to our best-loved charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute.
For further details of our open gardens, accessibility, directions and admission details visit www.ngs.org.uk
Carol Bartlett
Our District Churches No.11 – St Andrew’s, Foxton
