Two gardens on the Blackdown Hills, where donkeys, Pekin bantams and pet sheep will greet you. Croft House offers spring shrubs, a woodland, allotment garden and apiary next to giant lime trees. Walk through the donkey paddock to Smithycroft Cottage, with fruit trees and a vegetable patch. Both gardens boast stunning borders dancing with alliums, hellebores, cammasias, peruvian lilys, clematis, tulips and foxgloves and both have lovely views offering corners for quiet contemplation to relax and draw breath. Parking in the village. 

https://www.st-margarets-hospice.org.uk/croft-smithycroft-gardens

Address:	Chard, TA20 3NA / TA20 3LY
Open:	Sunday 28 May
Time:	2pm – 4pm
Admission:	£5

Mike and Jenny Spiller’s garden at Elworthy Cottage, Elworthy is open for the National Garden Scheme on Tuesdays 23rd & 30th May and Sunday 28th May fron 11am to 4.30 pm admission £4.50. Tea, coffee and cake available in aid of the Childrens Hospice South West. The adjoining nursery will also be open. Phone 01984656427 www.elworthy-cottage.co.uk

Elworthy is on the B3188 12miles NW of Taunton (postcode TA4 3PX)

Our next coach trip is just 3 weeks away when we head off to South Wales and Gloucestershire.

Our first stop will be at the Dewstow Gardens where, at the end of the 19th century, a director of the GWR took over the estate and indulged his interest in the growing and cultivation of ferns, tropical flowers and plants. However shortly after World War 2 the original gardens completely disappeared under tonnes of spoil from a nearby road development.

It was not until 2000 that the current owners began discovering the full extent of the original layout with a labyrinth of tunnels, underground grottoes and sunken ferneries which had been buried for more than 50 years. The garden is full of variety and has interesting planting. In many places water adds a special touch with pools and streams, waterfalls and fountains, ponds and rills.

https://www.dewstowgardens.co.uk/

We travel on to visit the nursery Pan Global Plants who hardly need any introduction. For well over two decades they have been supplying gardeners, collectors, arboreta and public gardens with one of the most inspiring and desirable collections of plants available in the UK. Every variety is chosen and vetted by Nick Macer, owner and well-known plantsman/plant explorer, who has travelled the temperate world extensively for inspiration. Here ‘rare’ and ‘unusual’ are used in the true sense of the words.

https://panglobalplants.com/

The coach leaves from Taunton (at 8.30 tbc) and wlll stop to pick up at Clevedon. We should be back in Taunton by 6.00pm. The cost is £22. To book please contact Penny Berry p.berry487@btinternet.com or phone: 01278 662720. For any other information about the trip please contacct Kate Harris nunnington@aol.com

On 13th July we will be visiting Hardy’s Plants and Spring Pond Garden near Andover and it would be helpful if you would book these visits at the same time. Further information cant be found on the programme page on the website https://somersethps.com/programme/

Tuesday 16th May

Self-drive trip to Sperry Barton, Upton, TA4 2BZ and Hollam House, Dulverton, TA22 9JH

£15.00 per person

Sperry Barton is on the top of the Brendon Hills to the West of Taunton, nestling into the hillside which give it some protection from the elements. The garden was a blank canvas when the owners took on the property nearly 20 years ago, but having moved less than a mile up the road, they were used to both the climate and the terrain. Knowledgable planting combined with a painterly eye have resulted in a gem of a garden which sits comfortably in its surroundings.

Hollam House is a stunning four acre spring garden on the edge of Exmoor.  This is the private garden of Annie Prebensen, half of the design team behind the award winning Donkey Sanctuary Garden at Chelsea in 2019. With rhododendrons, magnolias and thousands of tulips in the borders and grounds, there is a riot of colour in May.  Meadow areas are full of bulbs and wildflowers, and there are ponds, a water garden and a rill. Please note: Hollam House garden is not suitable for people with limited mobility.

There will be about 25 private gardens open in Cerne Abbas on 17th and 18th June and the money raised will be divided between the Dorchester Food Bank and a village charity.

This is a wonderful opportunity for folk to see hidden gardens often behind historic houses.

For more information visit their website here.

West Monkton Village Hall, 10.00am – 12.30pm

Admission £1

The HPS Somerset Group’s yearly Plant Sale takes place this coming Saturday 22nd, from 10am to 12.30pm.  There will be a wide variety of plants available, including herbaceous perennials, shrubs, annuals and biennials, all designed to add colour and interest to your borders.

All donated plants will be gratefully received on the day, just bring them along on Saturday morning and they will be added to the Group Table.

It is useful to have clear and accurate labelling  – customers are far less likely to buy a plant when they can’t identify it – so please put the genus and species or variety on the label, if you know it.  If you don’t know the species or variety, then the genus and flower colour would be better than nothing.