Apart from the ever-changing appearance of the garden itself, the open garden day is very much the same every year. My Mum is usually running around fretting about how much she has to do (the baking tends to start at about midnight the evening before everyone is due to visit). My job is always to lovingly decorate the cakes, help out around the garden in any way I can - and apart from that - stay out of the way and provide hourly cups of tea for my Mum to keep her going. What astounds me is that my Mother's garden has been a five year project. In that small space of time she has managed to turn a completely bare canvas into a three tiered exotic country garden which features its own pond and waterfall, fire-pit and bee hives (with a few extra shady areas to rest your legs in between). I've always encouraged my Mum to be more bold with colour in her landscape design, so I was delighted to see the newest addition to her flower beds: the most vibrantly coloured snapdragons you've ever laid eyes on.
The open garden is very much a family-run affair; with my Mum working as tour guide for the afternoon, I'm in charge of cakes and teas (not a hard job) and my Grandmother and Aunt sat on the door this year welcoming guests and dogs of all kinds. My Aunt even brought with her, her magnificent Bernese mountain dog called Tigga who, along with our dog Rufus, was able to pay her entrance fee, sample some cake and explore the garden. Although it has become tradition that my Mum and I start baking late the night before into the wee hours of the morning, the selection of goodies seems to get better every year. The two clear winners for the guests were my Mother's Raspberry and Rosewater Sponge, and her famous Bakewell Tart. With nearly £600 raised for charity, the day was a huge success and we'll be spending the next week trying to finish up any leftover cakes and tray bakes ourselves (which is a hard task but someone's got to do it right?) On behalf of my Mum and the National Garden Scheme, I'd like to thank every single person who came to visit the garden yesterday to admire both the cakes and the flowers. It means so much to be able to take something that we enjoy and use it as an excuse to raise money for worthy causes all over the country.
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4/7/2017 04:34:02 pm
I am STILL sighing in rapture at the very thought of your mum's Victoria sponge and Bakewell tart, which she oh so kindly baked for our garden tour's visit a few weeks ago. Her cakes AND her garden are the standard by which all others will be judged, and doubtless found wanting, by this visitor at least!
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About meHi there, my name is Nevada and I'm a twenty-six year old music teacher. The Little Green blog centres around wildlife, gardening and lifestyle photography. All photos are my own and represent the portfolio of an amateur photographer! Archives
August 2020
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