Friends dig in to help open up new sights (From Worcester News)

Friends dig in to help open up new sights

9:12am Monday 8th June 2009 in

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ACOTTAGE garden in Hallow, near Worcester, set in the midst of a countryside wilderness is a welcome new addition to the National Gardens Scheme.

No one was more surprised and pleased that it had found its way into The Yellow Book 2009 than the couple who own it.

NGS garden owners come from a variety of different backgrounds, and the newly opened garden in Hallow is the creation of a university professor and a retired probation officer.

Hazel Kemshall and Chris Neville have always been keen Yellow Book garden visitors and have had a long-held ambition to be able to open their garden for the National Garden Scheme, but have never been sure whether it would be accepted.

But last year, having opened the quarter of an acre plot to the public for their local church, they were delighted with the obvious pleasure that their visitors took in it and decided to contact the charity’s county organiser and submit Rose Cottage in Moseley Road, Hallow, for the NGS.

When asked about the submission, Ms Kemshall said: “We had watched other hopeful owners go through this process on Gardeners’ World and quite expected a mark of ‘could do better’, but much to our surprise and delight we were accepted first time.”

They inherited a pleasant but incomplete garden when they moved into Rose Cottage in 2007, with some cottage garden-style beds already planted.

They describe the plot as “an awkward beast”, as it is on a slope with differing levels, open to bitter north-east winds and in a frost pocket. It is also next to open farmland which results in a constant battle with weeds.

In the last two years they have added more hardy geraniums to the existing beds and are building a small collection of crocosmia, as a reminder of a trip to South Africa.

They have also created a gravel garden inspired by Beth Chatto’s garden in Essex but with planting adapted to the rather wetter conditions of Worcestershire.

They have also been busy adding more beds around a small collection of acers and magnolias, a small woodland area and fernery, a vegetable plot and a wildlife area.

While the garden offers the traditional impact of a June cottage garden, additional planting has attempted to give all round colour, with winter planting based on white birches, cornus, hellebores and snowdrops inspired by Rosemary Verey’s The Garden in Winter.

Ms Kemshall first gardened as a toddler with her father, using scaled down garden tools, and is now interested in design having already created two suburban gardens from scratch.

Mr Neville has a long-standing interest in ‘growing his own’, having previously had allotments and large vegetable patches.

Friends have helped organise parking, plant sales, ticket sales, and in putting the final touches to the garden, ready for the opening on Sunday, June 7, between 11am and 5pm for a £2 entry fee. For sat-nav users the post code is WR2 6NJ, and for those who prefer traditional maps, the garden is three miles north west of Worcester just off the A433.

● Details of all NGS gardens can be obtained from the Yellow Book or by checking the local county leaflets, available at Tourist Information Centres, or at ngs.org.uk.