Spring bulbs - iceni Post News from the North folk & South folk

>April Events / Business Editorials / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk / Gardens and Gardening / Tourist Attractions Norfolk and Suffolk / walks / Wildlife March 13, 2020

Spring bulbs, flowering shrubs and woodland walks are instore for visitors to three gardens opening their gates for the National Garden Scheme in April 2020.

Opening for the first time, is the three acre garden at The Old Rectory at Catfield. The garden adjoins a further fifteen acres, providing opportunities for a lake side walk, leading through orchards, woodland and on to a cutting garden. Masses of spring flowering plants, including narcissi, species tulips, hellebores, fritillaries and anemones wait. Children will love to visit the horses, ponies, pigs, sheep, goats, donkey, ducks and many free range poultry roaming the grounds. A photo exhibition in the adjoining church is planned to coincide with the garden opening. Opens Sunday 19th April 11am – 5pm, adults £5 and children are free.

Also on Sunday 19th April, from 12pm until 4pm, Mannington Estate will open 20 acres of gardens to visitors. The garden encompasses shrubs, a lake, woodland, period and sensory garden, and offers extensive countryside walks and trails. The Greedy Goose tearooms offer home-made locally sourced food with light lunches and home-made teas. Entry is £6.00 per person with children free.

Finally, on Sunday 26th April, The Old House at Ranworth will be open, showing attractive linked and walled gardens alongside Ranworth Inner Broad. Visitors will be able to see spring bulbs, shrubs, a small Villandry-inspired potager, and interesting sculptures, as well as experience trails through the arboretum and spectacular views of the church and broad. Open between 11am and 4pm, entrance costs £5.00 and children are free.

All open gardens will be serving home-made refreshments, and entry for children is free, but please check the website for wheelchair access and whether the garden is dog friendly. You can find out about gardens open throughout 2020 by accessing our website: www.ngs.org.uk and searching for Norfolk gardens. The website also highlights gardens that open for groups by arrangement.

About National Garden Scheme

The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England and Wales, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake.

Thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors we have donated a total of £58 million to nursing and health charities, and made a donation of £3 million in 2019. Founded in 1927 to support district nurses, we are now the most significant charitable funder of nursing in the UK and our beneficiaries include Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute.

The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – we are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. We fund projects which promote gardens and gardening as therapy, and in 2017, we launched our annual Gardens and Health Week to raise awareness of the topic.

To find your perfect garden, visit ngs.org.uk, download the National Garden Scheme app or purchase the National Garden Scheme’s Garden Visitor’s Handbook, which is published annually and available via ngs.org.uk/shop and at all good book retailers.