It’s the height of Summer and the National Gardens Scheme (NGS) in Norfolk has 12 glorious gardens opening during July. You don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy visiting these gardens so why not enjoy a day out and wallow in the sights and scents of some beautiful floral displays.

Highlighted here is a sample of some of the lovely gardens.

On Sunday July 3^rd a new town garden at 4 Wensum Crescent in Norwich shows just how much can be achieved after three years hard work yielding lots of interesting features and unusual plants.

At a rare midweek opening on Tuesday July 5^th you can view two contrasting gardens at Marlingford.  The Old Smithy is a cottage garden with some eye catching plant combinations, wandering hens and a stumpery!  4 Mill Road has a series of formal garden rooms with a focus on colour themed planting.

Another new garden at Blackhorse Cottage in Hickling opens over the weekend of the 16^th and 17^th July featuring two acres of spacious borders and island beds surrounding a thatched house and traditional barn.

On July 24th DaleFarm in Dereham, a favourite garden for many visitors, has two acres of waterside beds bursting with colour and a vast range of planting ideas. Owner Sally Watts is a keen grower and will have over 1000 plants for sale including many rarities selected from the garden.

Bringing the month to a rousing conclusion on the 31^st July there are four delightfully different gardens opening in the splendid historic Norman village of Castle Acre. Each garden has so much to interest and inspire the visitor from colourful displays of perennials to wild areas and even tropical splendour!

All the gardens highlighted will be serving delicious home-made teas and your visit will be helping to raise much needed funds for the vital nursing and caring charities supported by the NGS.

More details and information on these and other gardens to be open in July for the Norfolk NGS can be found in the yellow booklet which is free and readily available in libraries, tourist information centres, nurseries and garden centres. Visit our website at  www.ngs.org.uk or follow us on Twitter

 

Sun 3 July

4 WENSUM CRESCENT, Lower Hellesdon, Norwich NR6 5DL.

Open 12-5 Adm £3, chd free. Home-made teas. Also open 68 Elm Grove Lane, Norwich. A site completely cleared May 2013 so a relatively new garden with some interesting and unusual plants including lots of evergreens, so it looks good all year round. Designed to create interesting views from around the garden with different patio and seating areas throughout. A bespoke garden room was built on site for lazy afternoons.

68 ELM GROVE LANE Norwich NR3 3LF.

Open (11- 4). Adm £3, chd free. Home-made teas. Selection of homemade cakes incl gluten free. This extended living/working space is the owner’s endeavour to redefine a suburban garden and to provide inspiration when viewed from his studio window. Aesthetic values, initially took precedent over gardening know-how, but over 30 years a more balanced approach has resulted in an eclectic array of informal planting, rich in colour and form and full of surprises.

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DESERT WORLD GARDENS Thetford Road (B1107), Santon Downham IP27 0TU, Open (10-5) Adm £3.50, chd free. Light refreshments.

11/4 acres plantsman’s garden,specialising in tropical and arid plants.

Hardy succulents – sempervivums andplectranthus. Bamboos, herbaceous,

ferns, spring/summer bulbs, primula theatre, over 70 varieties of magnolias.

View from roof garden. New area of primula auriculas.

 Tue 5 July

4 MILL ROAD Marlingford NR9 5HL.

Open (10.30-4.30). Combined adm with The Old Smithy  £5, chd free. Home-made teas.

Take home ideas from this small garden packed with unusual features. Designed as a collection of garden rooms divided by hedges, paths, arches and pleached limes. Colour- themed borders, Japanese garden, pond, vegetables and fruit. Wind sculpture. Views to the water meadows beyond. A children’s trail, plenty of seats to sit, relax and enjoy the view. Music.

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THE OLD SMITHY Mill Road, Marlingford, Norwich NR9 5HL.

Open (10.30-4.30). Combined adm with 4 Mill Road £5, chd free. Home-made teas at 4 Mill Road.

A garden for the family designed by a plantsman, with unusual cottage garden perennials and shrubs. Large north facing border filled with colour for all seasons.Woodland planting, specimen trees, stumpery, vegetables and hens.

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Sat 9 July

BLICKLING LODGE Blickling, Norwich NR11 6PS.

Open (2-5.30). Adm £4.50, chd free. Home-made teas.

Georgian house (not open) set in 17 acres of parkland including cricket pitch, mixed border, walled kitchen garden, yew garden, woodland/water garden and river walk.

Sun 10 July

BOLWICK HALL Marsham NR10 5PU. 

Open (1-5). Adm £5, chd free. Home-made teas.

Landscaped gardens and park surrounding a late Georgian hall. The original garden design is attributed to Humphry Repton. The current owners have rejuvenated the borders, planted gravel and formal gardens and clad the walls of the house in old roses. Enjoy a woodland walk around the lake as well as as stroll through the working vegetable and fruit garden.

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Sat 16, Sun 17 July

BLACK HORSE COTTAGE The  Green, Hickling, Norwich NR1 0YA.

Open(12-5). Adm £4, chd free. Home-made teas.

Thatched house with traditional barn 1/2 m from Hickling Broad, Plantsman’s garden over 2 acres professionally redesigned. Spaciousborders and islands with diverse range of characterful planting.

Particular emphasis on achieving full year round interest. Wide range of managed mature specimen trees. Many long two-way vistas. Wide mown walkways through large meadow. Various sitting opportunities!

Sun 24 July

DALE FARM Sandy Lane, Dereham NR19 2EA.

Open (11-5). Adm £4.50, chd free. Home-made teas

2 acre plant lover’s garden with a large spring fed pond. Over 900 plant varieties featured in exuberantly planted borders and waterside gardens.These incl a collection of 80 species and varieties of hydrangea. Kitchen garden, orchard, naturalistic planting areas, gravel garden and sculptures. Gravel drive and some grass paths. Wide range of plants for sale incl many rare hydrangeas.

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WEST LODGE Aylsham NR11 6HB.

Open (12-5). Adm £5, chd free. Tea. 

9-acre garden with lawns, splendid mature trees, rose garden, well- stocked herbaceous borders, ornamental pond, magnificent 21/2 acre C19 walled kitchen garden (maintained as such). Georgian house (not open) and outbuildings incl a

well-stocked tool shed (open) and greenhouses.

Sun 31 July

BRICK KILN HOUSE Priory Lane, Shotesham St Mary,Norwich NR15 1UJ.

Open(11-5). Adm £5, chd free. Home- made teas.

2 acre garden with a mixture of different types of planting and sculpture. A large terrace, lawns and herbaceous borders near the house. A pergola with wisteria and clematis through an intimate rose garden surrounded by a ‘topiaried ‘yew hedge. Mature trees and diverse planting in a woodland garden with a stream.

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Sun 31 July

CASTLE ACRE GARDENS King’s Lynn PE32 2AN,  Car park and teas at Tudor Lodgings.

Open(11-5). Combined adm £6, chd free. Home-made teas at Tudor Lodgings.

TUDOR LODGINGS, HIGHFIELD HOUSE, ORMONDE HOUSE, ST OSYTH

Castle Acre is in rural North West Norfolk situated on the R Nar. An historic Norman village which has a bailey gate, castle, earthworks, parish church and priory. There is a tearoom, PH and shop. The four delightful gardens which vary in size, structure and planting will provide the visitors with much interest and inspiration.

Tudor Lodgings, a C15 house (not open), has a 2 acre garden that incorporates part of the Norman earthworks and contains 18th century dovecote, topiary, lawns and knot garden. A productive fruit cage dominates the vegetable garden. Wild area with pond and Shepherd’s hut. Just up the road is Ormonde House, a small rear walled garden facing south that has mixed shrubs, herbaceous, annuals and recent planting added to existing 1960s shrubs. The 3/4 acre garden at Highfield House was started 33 years ago and has herbaceous borders, vegetable patch, gravel garden and pond. St Osyth has been a lifetime’s work for Fred and Audrey where they have created a small bright garden packed with colour and life. An inner area luxuriates in exotic tropical splendor.

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