Two extraordinary gardens are opening for the National Gardens Scheme charities for the first time. One a tiny hidden gem with feature seating areas, the second, a recently renovated sloping coastal garden, designed by Chelsea Gold Medal winner Darren Hawkes.
Dye Cottage, is small, but extremely pretty – bursting with scented wisteria, fruit cages and roses. It covers just a third of an acre in the historic village of St Neot on the north side of Bodmin Moor. The garden has been designed and maintained by owners, Sue and Brian Williams. Although small, it features diverse seating areas – by a river, round a fire pit, in a courtyard and on a rose terrace. Other areas of interest include the summer house, potting shed and the office, which was once a tree house. The garden will be open on three consecutive days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June the 24th, 25th and 26th, between 2pm and 5.30pm. Admission is £3.50, children free. Cream teas will be available.
Readymoney Garden, is a renovation work in progress, being created by celebrated garden designer, Darren Hawkes. Unusually, it’s not attached to a house – the plot was once a walled garden. It’s steeply sloping garden and perched above Readymoney beach with stunning views of the Fowey estuary.
Bramble, Knotweed and Winter Heliotrope have been replaced by staggered runs of informal hedges that spill from the top of the garden down over the slopes towards the beach, suggestive of large boulders with Miscanthus, Molinia and Restios filling the gaps in-between.
Without a building on the plot, Darren felt the garden needed an anchor point so he designed a bespoke greenhouse linked through a central porch to a slate-roofed summerhouse and decked area with views across the beach and out to sea. Although a young garden, a peach tree inside the greenhouse has begun to provide bumper crops of succulent fruit.
There are four chances to visit Readymoney Garden during the summer. It will open on the last Friday of the month – June 24th, July 29th, August 26th and September 30th – between 10.30am and 5pm. Admission costs £4, children free.