Gardens to visit FREE TO VISIT! OPEN ALL YEAR!


Pat Crawford suggests that


BROADVIEW GARDENS has a lot to offer!


How many gardens are open to the public all year round? Very few indeed. And how many are open free of charge? Even fewer! Hadlow College’s 10- acre Broadview Gardens is the exception that proves the rule. Designed over a period of around 15 years by


students studying for a degree in garden design, the location of Broadview on the old Medway flood plain - with exposure to the prevailing winds - is challenging. Tall hedges afford some protection from the elements and also help to create the delightful ‘gardens within gardens’ that make Broadview so memorable. Home to


national collections of hellebores and Japanese anemones, themes include Italian, subtropical, sensory, 200- metre mixed borders, slate and water, oriental-style – a meadow, a pond and a lake – and more. Their very diversity ensures that the Broadview gardens are


interesting throughout the year – even on the darkest winter days. The Suttons Garden, situated on the boundary of


Broadview, will especially interest gardeners who want to produce their own ‘five-a-day’ fruit and vegetables. Three years ago the college designed and constructed a traditional-style kitchen garden to trial new varieties and test out innovative growing techniques for the Devon-based plant and seed specialists. Visitors are able to glean ideas they can adapt for use in their own gardens – and there is usually a member of staff around who can offer advice. The college’s award-winning Broadview Tearoom adjoins the gardens. Offering morning coffee, luncheon and afternoon tea – and ‘brunch’ on a Sunday – virtually everything is prepared and cooked on the premises using locally sourced ingredients whenever


EXCLUSIVE MID-KENT LIVING READER OFFER 10%OFF


All Garden Centre and Tea Room purchases On production of this voucher


Offer valid until 31st. May 2011. One voucher per person, but discount available to everyone accompanying coupon holder that day. Only original vouchers to be redeemed, no photocopies. Broadveiw Garden Centre, Hadlow. May not be used in addition to any other offers or discounts.


Mid Kent Living 37


possible. This aligns well to the college’s management of Produced in Kent – the membership organisation that promotes Kent’s food and drink. Hadlow also offers another ‘freebie’ – membership of


the Broadview Gardening Club! It provides a number of benefits and discounts as well as providing advance information of forthcoming events, talks by ‘famous name’ gardeners, etc. For an application form, send an SAE to: Pat Crawford, Hadlow College, Hadlow TN11 OAL.


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