Open gardens success

Five gardens were put on show as part of NGS fundraising and the owners are now celebrating having helped raise 2,503.

This total will be divided up with 426 going to Macmillan Cancer Support and 207 to Friary Gardens (Parchment Trust) for its plant sale. The remainder will go to the NGS to distribute between their caring charities.

The gardens opened on Sunday as part of the National Garden Scheme were in Ashcombe Drive, Barnhorn Road, Collington Lane East and Cranston Avenue.

Iris and Ron Leeson came over from Battle to look round and said: "We do a lot of gardening, so it is nice to see other people's ideas and get inspiration."

Ron added: "We have just been to two in Collington Lane East and Cranston Avenue. One of them was very quirky, like a hide-and-seek garden, with little nooks and crannies - it was rather unusual, very interesting."

Liz and Richard Chown have been involved with NGS for five years and enjoy the opportunity to share their garden with other people.

Liz admits the garden is the vision and work of her husband, although she works in it too, and said: "Richard is artistic, and the garden is like his palate really. He designed it and the garden has taken over as his canvas, he knows the colours to put together and the textures and shapes he wants. He works very hard at it - he likes the little bits that lead you around, and you have to go around the garden to see everything - you can't see it all at once.

"It is very peaceful. There's lots of people in it right now but even so it seems quite a peaceful garden. I love the pond - Richard has put big plants around it like acer, formiums, geraniums, weigilia, palm, cotinus, and in the pond there's iris, lilies, and the blue pickerel which is not out yet. We have got newts in there, fish, and masses of tadpoles at the moment and baby froglets. It is a natural pond which is why it's a bit green at the moment - once the tadpoles hatch out it all goes green and then in the summer it will clear. We have got dragonflies and damsels, pond skaters, and water beetles, and lots of snails in there as well which keep the bottom clean, and the tadpoles eat as well, so it's all part of the foodchain.

"Richard loves the olives in the garden most - they are his real favourite...he doesn't like just the totally traditional English country plants, he is more for the unusual and exotic, but we lost three banana trees this year because it was so cold.

"So we have lots of meditteranean plants here and yet the effect is of an English country garden. It all goes together really."