Wow, what a most enjoyable visit we had to this National Trust garden, which has 400 steps throughout the garden. (Don’t we know it!) It is a Victorian horticultural masterpiece full of intrigue and surprise. The vast range of trees, shrubs and flowers is simply amazing. Fortunately, the weather was gorgeous, which enabled us to see the colours of the rhododendrons and azaleas contrasting with the lake and backdrop of trees. The visit took us on a journey from an Italian terrace, to an Egyptian pyramid, via an Himalayan glen and an amazing Chinese inspired garden. We were able to take our refreshments outside and by mid afternoon the cream scones, cakes and cups of tea were the order of the day.

We hope that everyone on the coach had an enjoyable day. Unfortunately our departure was delayed slightly, due to a road traffic accident at the entrance to the gardens. I hope that you will join me in wishing the motorcyclist who was injured and then transferred very carefully into an ambulance a full recovery.

Once again, thank you to our organiser and committee for another memorable visit.

We enjoyed an excellent, informative and at times humorous talk by our local horticultural lecturer, writer and broadcaster (incl BBC Radio Nottingham) last Friday. Stuart’s talk was supported by images of many borders which he has seen around the country, including a number of National Trust gardens. He used these to advise on the content and structure of borders, plus when to plant and prune many of our favourite herbaceous perennial border plants.

For our summer social, which is to include some refreshments, on the evening of Thursday 16th July 2015, we are scheduled to visit Stuart’s garden, which will no doubt provide us with even more inspiration for our own gardens.

Our increasingly popular plant sale was held in the Lowdham village hall car park last Saturday. Fortunately it was a bright sunny morning, although there was a cool breeze. We had a large selection of summer bedding plants, perennials, some vegetables and herbs plus a selection of fruit bushes for sale at very attractive prices.

The sale was well attended and we thank everyone who supported the event.