A couple of weeks ago I helped out at the Scotland’s Gardens Scheme charity open day at Halmyre Mains. The garden is situated between Romano bridge, West Linton and La Mancha just on the edge of the Scottish Borders and they have been opening for SGS for a number of years.
It’s a half- acre organic garden with deep herbaceous borders, raised plots, a keder house and polytunnel, greenhouse (I’m so envious of all this greenhousing space), not to mention a large pond all with lovely views straight on to the hills.
It was my first time visiting and the sun was out. Before the visitors started arriving, owner Mike took me on a tour, what a gorgeous spot and there were so many interesting plants, many of which, I’d never seen before.
As it turned out, they had a very efficient group of volunteers so I spent a very pleasurable afternoon, in the sunshine, chatting with the visitors. Of course, I couldn’t leave without buying some plants or cakes and went home with plenty of both.
For July, it is very green outside of the garden.
Are cakes traditional for horticultural events? It seems that every garden tour or nursery open house not only serves cakes and tea, but also sells cakes. Everyone seems to purchase them as if it is what is done at such events. When I attend garden tours here, we sometimes visit a few gardens through the day. That would be a lot of cakes!
ha, yes it does seem to be the done thing here. Just as well it’s not to prevalent in your neck of the woods otherwise waistlines would suffer
Obesity is actually an epidemic here, even without the traditional cakes and teas.