Charity - Hall Grove Charity Garden Opening

Hall Grove opens its gardens in aid of the National Gardens Scheme.Money raised from garden openings in 2005 have enabled the National Gardens Scheme to donate over £1.8 million to its beneficiaries this year. More than £20 million has been donated to charity since the NGS began in 1927.

The main gardens and parkland are being developed so that they will not be too costly to maintain in the future and to enhance the main features of a very attractive open site.  Deer and rabbits are a problem outside the main kitchen garden (now divided between two private family houses). Water restrictions are likely to be an increasing feature over the coming years and this has influenced the choice of planting.  The lavender garden suffered this year from a hard late frost and must be re-planted next year. The woodland walk has been extended around a lakeland wildlife sanctuary.

Badgers’ Cottage, a private home, is a delightful oasis right in the heart of the school with informal borders and rose screens. The cottage, now much extended, was originally the head gardener's house.

At the other end of the walled garden lies Vine Cottage, built in the 1970s as a staff house on the site of the old greenhouses. Its garden has been re-planned this year and there is a newly planted herbaceous border and an area set aside for soft fruit and vegetables. It has a most attractive and unusual summer house.

Field House, a private home, was built in the 1960s and extended in the 1990s. There you can see the old Georgian icehouse and admire a very attractive woodland garden that year by year is achieving its own special character.