I think I have always appreciated gardens, but probably do more so as I get older. My mother and grandmother were both keen gardeners. My other half and I inherited a big garden so we had to do something with it. It has been fairly random, but in recent years we had a design done for us and have worked around that as I posted recently. It is always good to get ideas and seeing actual gardens is best for that.
We happened to see that Letchworth Garden City had open gardens at the weekend so that was a good opportunity to see what others had been up to. Letchworth was designed as having lots of green space at the start of the 1900s. There are lots of different house designs and many of the originals are still standing with plaques to mark them. The Arts and Crafts movement was big then and you can see lots of examples. The house above is much older, dating back to the 17th century. It was one of the last we visits and the garden is stunning with lots of sculptures. You may notice the big topiary head by the house.
A lot of the gardens featured water with some even having artificial streams. I liked this kinetic fountain that turned a modified bicycle wheel.
The event is run for charity so you have to buy a programme with a map and descriptions to show as you enter each garden. There were lots of people going around. There was a minibus doing loops, but we walked it all. We did not get to every house, but did over half before our feet had had enough. Luckily it was not as hot as previous days.
There was lots of variety with some being fairly formal and others more wild, but you could see that thought had been put into them. The house above is fairly typical, but we also visited some fairly modern ones. The town has expanded a lot.
Some gardens did not even have a lawn, but then that is a high maintenance feature.
Although some houses were on busy roads the rear gardens could be quite peaceful. There are a lot of houses with huge front gardens, but that can be a bit public unless you grow or build some screening. Of course a lot of those houses are pretty expensive, but then it is a nice place to live and in easy reach of London where you tend to get less space.
It was inspirational. Most places were selling plants so we bought a few. A lot also had cakes and drinks on sale to keep us refreshed. Quite a few also had an artist on site painting the garden.
I think this event only happens every two years, but we will look out for others. If there was one in our village we might even consider opening our garden, but it still needs lots of work.
