Three coffee mornings have been arranged this year and we are grateful to everyone who offered to host one. They all start at 10:30am and finish at 12:30pm. The cost is £2 (includes coffee). The person holding the coffee morning may also ask for a contribution to, or sell plants for, their favourite charity.
Tony and Pippa Hilton's, Manor Farm Cottage, Main Street, Elmley Castle, near Pershore, WR10 3HS
Having been planted in 2002, this cottage garden is now very mature with planting to give all-year round interest. Aim up the main street towards the church and pub - we are half-way up on the right. Plenty of parking in the road.
Kathryn Elrick Smith's, Mabs Cottage, 8 Trotshill Lane East, Trotshill, Worcester WR4 0HX
We moved to Mabs Cottage on 1 June 1987. The garden is just under half an acre, the underlying soil is heavy clay, and there are several ponds in the vicinity. It is essentially a cottage garden with no particular colour or planting schemes, and it has taken several years to establish a vegetable garden at the back where it was totally overgrown when we first arrived.
The rest of the garden had obviously been designed to a certain extent before we moved in, although it mainly consisted of lawns, shrubs and approximately 210 rose bushes. I still have many of the rose bushes as I write, although they may have succumbed to the drastic pruning I am planning this year by the date of the coffee morning, but I hope not! Unsurprisingly, I have made many mistakes over the years and now have my fair share of plants in the wrong places and thugs such as ivy, bindwind, geranium and Alchemilla mollis, but I still love my garden. I am now in the process of trying to overhaul the planting, work which is long overdue, so any hints and suggestions will be gladly received when you visit.
Jackie Davies',The Coach House, Pumphouse Lane, Blackwell, Bromsgrove B60 1QW
Our garden at The Coach House (yes, it really was a coach house and barn built 1720) is about ¾ acre in total but is an 'L' shape with the main part of the garden at the front of the house with steps up to the lawns. At the back of the house is the pond garden – not much planting but a large pond with waterlilies and goldfish, a small bed of hostas and some ferns. There is also a tiny pond in the main garden with a stream running down a steep bank into it i.e. ‘a water feature’ !
The lawns at the front are bordered by beds with mixed (very!) herbaceous perennials and quite a few 'visitors' from the field next to us! I have managed a little colour theming with a small blue and white bed and a 'hot' bed, but those unwelcome 'visitors' seem to make themselves at home anywhere where there is bare earth. We came here 24 years ago and started cutting out borders for the plants I brought with me from Nottingham: there was only one narrow border running along the wall between us and a field. Rob Cole came to give us a hand in the general shaping of them.
Mervyn keeps the vegetables and fruit in pretty good order when he can. I now feel the need to start ordering some turf - the borders are getting too much for me!
We have some hens in the orchard (the end of the 'L' shape at the top of the garden) and some white fantail doves - if only the buzzards would go away.
We have very thin sandy soil, so what you may see in August ...... Please come for coffee and company. The garden will be only a mere distraction I feel, especially since looking at the devastation caused by the snow and low temperatures this past winter. What is left alive still isn’t yet obvious!
More photos of Jackie's garden
