Time Off - Local Garden Visits Three Dorset gardens to visit this month...


The Secret Garden at Serles House


The Secret Garden at Serles House in Wimborne, is a quirky garden, full of surprises, and has some evening openings for the NGS


In the centre of Wimborne, Ian Willis has created a quirky garden, full of surprises, and has some evening openings for the NGS (see below). To the accompaniment of live music, find the Peacock Feather Fantasia mural, the summerhouse where money grows on trees and the


Victorian Gothic Revival sitting room. Artefacts abound around the garden, many of them local and historic, such as an old street lamp, old windows, and cannons dragged out of the Solent from nearby Farrs House. Others are artistic, including a collection of sculptures by the late Robin Noscoe. The garden is divided into ‘rooms’: the sunken garden, the fernery, the secret, or white, garden, the kitchen garden now mainly producing soft fruit, and the orchard with its tree house and the flower pot man called Irvine after the previous owner.


Location: The Secret Garden at Serles House, 47 Victoria Road, Wimborne, Dorset BH21 1EN. Final openings for NGS for 2010: Saturday 11th September, 6pm – 9pm, Sunday 12th September, 2.30pm – 5.30pm, also Friday 3rd December and Saturday 4th December, 6pm – 9pm. Admission: £3, children free (share to Wimborne Civic Society), evenings £4, with wine and light refreshments. Some shallow steps and gravel, and no wheelchair access to the house. No dogs. For directions and more information visit the website: www.ngs.org.uk


Number 52 Huntly Road


A new entry for the NGS Yellow Book this summer, this compact, elegant suburban garden on the outskirts of Bournemouth has a last open day of the season on Saturday 11th September. Owners Darren Pask and Christopher Kelu are RHS qualified gardeners and their expertise is shown in the profusion of plants and good design. Winding paths lead through palms, cordylines, eucalyptus and rare bamboos, underplanted with herbaceous and leafy varieties.


52 Huntly Road is a compact, elegant suburban garden on the outskirts of Bournemouth


Hardy’s Cottage


Thomas Hardy’s birthplace, Hardy’s Cottage is a delightful National Trust venue that is open until the end of October. Wander round the old garden with its tumbling profusion of plants around the cob and thatched cottage set among the trees in this peaceful spot. Go into the cottage which was built by his great- grandfather in 1800, forty years before Hardy was born, and imagine how it was for him and


Thomas Hardy’s birthplace, Hardy’s Cottage is open until the end of October


his family to live there. His early novels, Under the Greenwood Tree, and Far From the Madding Crowd, were written there, and copies of his books are available for sale.


Location: Hardy’s Cottage, Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset DT2 8QJ. Open until 31st October. 11am – 5pm, Thursday – Monday. Closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays. Admission: £4 adults, free to NT members. No WC. Telephone: 01305 262366. Email: hardyscottage@nationaltrust.org.uk Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk


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Please check with locations or websites before you make a long journey in case there has been any change in opening dates or times.


Odd, but not everyone knows we do home insurance


We do. Call 01460 57901 for a quote or pop into the office to talk to Angela Joy at NFU Mutual Office, Park View, Eaglewood Park, Ilminster TA19 9DQ


Agent of The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited. Country Gardener We do right by you 43


Location: 52 Huntly Road, Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, Dorset BH3 7HJ. Open for the last time this season: Saturday 11th September, 12pm – 5pm. Admission: £3, children free. Home made teas, and plants for sale. No dogs. Telephone: 01202 515709. For more information on directions, visit the NGS website: www.ngs.org.uk


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