2024 Events Programme
We will be using the Eventbrite website once again to book tickets, which can only be done by SGT members who will be emailed the links to the relevant events. Anyone interested in joining SGT can download an application form from the website (click on the Join tab).
Wednesday 6 March 2024 at 11am
Kapunda Plants, Kapunda, Southstoke Lane, Bath, BA2 5SH
by kind permission of Juliet Davis Ticket £16
We start our year with a lovely spring plant – the Lenten Hellebore. Kapunda is a natural 2-acre garden with many interesting features, including a spring display of hellebores, herbaceous beds, potager, fountain and terrace. You may have seen it on BBC Gardeners World or read about it in Country Life Article (January 2019).
We will have refreshments on arrival, a short talk and a walk round garden for about an hour and a half with Juliet Davis. There is also a chance to view propagating greenhouse. Please note strictly no dogs.
Thursday 18 April 2024 at 11am
The Italian Garden, Great Ambrook Ave, Ipplepen, Newton Abbot TQ12 5UL Ticket £12
The Italian Garden is an extraordinary place on the edge of Dartmoor. It was built in 1909 for Arthur Smith Graham. After decades of neglect, it remains remarkably close to the original layout including a long pergola, an observatory at the summit of the garden, swimming pool, rills, walkways and tennis court. It is being restored by a team of enthusiastic volunteers thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We are advised that the paths are under restoration and uneven in places so “people do need sturdy shoes and to be steady on their feet. There are a few steps as you start the tour and then some steps down from the tennis pavilion at the end. Most can be avoided, if necessary, by coming back down the paths which are on a gentle slope”. They are able to accommodate a small number in a visit and if this visit is very popular, we will try to arrange a further visit.
Wednesday 15 May 2024 at 2pm
Througham Court, Througham, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 7HGby kind permission of Christine Facer Hoffman
Ticket £38
Christines writes “the garden is an amalgam of a 1930’s Arts & Crafts garden designed by Norman Jewson and contemporary science inspired areas that I have designed over the past 15 years. There is extensive topiary and flower beds with unusual species
In mid-May we have a beautiful handkerchief tree in flower, alliums and the ‘River of Camassias’ which is stunning when in flower.”
Please note that the gardens are on the side of a secret Cotswold valley and have many steps and some uneven paths so sadly not recommended for anyone with mobility problems. Refreshments: there will be tea/coffee/ cakes after the tour in the Garden Room.
Saturday 18 May 2024 Two Wincanton Gardens 2:30 to 4:30
The Manor (known as “The Dogs”) South Street Wincanton BA9 9DL by kind permission of Philip & Anna Hughes
and 10 Flingers Lane, BA9 9LE – by kind permission of Yseult Ogilvie Hughes Ticket £19
We are welcomed to two town gardens in Wincanton. Firstly, The Manor, known as “The Dogs” from two dog statues which once stood at the gates. It is a pretty town garden around a Grade 1 listed house. Refreshments will be served here. And secondly, a secluded walled garden to the left off the High Street by Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There is no parking at either venue.
Wednesday 5 June 2024 at 2pm
Caisson House, Combe Hay, Bath, BA2 7EF by kind permission of Phil and Amanda Honey
Ticket £33
A visit to a wonderfully eclectic garden situated in the small village of Combe Hay on the outskirts of Bath. The owners are Phil who previously built film & TV sets and Amanda Honey, a garden designer. Together they have taken the disused locks of the Somerset Coal Canal and transformed it into a beautiful garden with a mix of herbaceous borders, topiaries, ponds and rills. There is a walled garden with fruit trees, greenhouses and wildflower meadows. We will have an introductory talk, time to enjoy the garden and refreshments.
Monday 10 June 2024 at 2:30pm
Visit to garden at Upper Sydling House, Up Sydling, Dorchester, DT2 9PH by kind permission of Mr & Mrs Alastair Cooper
Ticket £33
This organic garden in the heart of rural Dorset was acquired in the early 2000’s. The garden was first developed by Simon Johnson with a walled cutting garden. After a visit to Hanham Court, the owners asked Isabel and Julian Bannerman to develop the garden further. The garden now has beehive and clipped yew and quantities of roses, euphorbias and bearded iris. There is a rill with clever seats of box and oak and rich plantings of perennials and annuals leading to a gorgeous effect. Gardens Illustrated July 2021 has an article. Refreshments will be provided.
Thursday 25 July 2024 at 2:30 pm
The Manor House, Main Street, Chilthorne Domer, Yeovil, BA22 8RD by kind permission of Colonel David Madden and Penny Madden KC
Ticket £15
We were recommended to visit this garden by Dorset Gardens Trust who had a most enjoyable visit last summer. David Madden will welcome us to the garden and introduce the history of the site and how describe how he has gardened there. The herbaceous borders should be in full bloom.
At the end of the visit, we will have tea and cakes in one of the beautifully maintained 17th century barns.
Tuesday 20 August at 2.30 p.m.
Corsley House, Corsley, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 7QH by kind permission of Keith Johnson and Glen Senk
Ticket £19
We have been invited to see this American-owned garden around a Georgian home with a secret Jacobean façade situated below Cley Hill. As well as a fine walled garden it has a sculpted wave lawn – quite unique topiary and old buildings.
Monday 2 September 2024 at 2:30 p.m.
Wudston House, High Street, Wedhampton, Devizes, SN10 3QE by kind permission of David Morrison
Ticket £20
This garden, surrounding a sensational modern house, was built on a redundant farmyard and started in 2010. A hornbeam tunnel separates the vegetable garden from a sunken garden. There are double borders with tall hornbeam pyramids and filled with unusual perennials and shrubs from Pan Global Plants. As the garden merges with the countryside a perennial meadow, designed with the help of Professor James Hitchmough, uses plants from South Africa, Europe and North America.
There is limited parking in the paddock beside the house and we are asked to car-share where possible.
Refreshments will be served.