Round Hill Gardens

Belton Close

Just a few photos from the Garden Gadabout held the last two weekends in aid of the Sussex Beacon - on the way back from a swim, I dropped in on a place recommended by friends in the road encircling Queen's Park. I asked the owner of a garden centred on a pond about her favourite things; a plantswoman, she singled out two plants, one of which was this erigeron, thriving in a sunny spot. A cultivated daisy, this one looked quite wild in its profusion and variety of delicate white, pink and mauve petals.

Afterwards, I headed for some gardens in the Round Hill area: a wildlife garden that several people had tipped. It was a densely planted and shady garden divided into several spaces leading along meandering paths to a vegetable plot with chickens and compost bins. There were numerous ponds and bird tables (as well as seventeen nest boxes, according to the guide sheet): this blackbird (left) seemed completely at ease less than a few feet away from me.
Also in Richmond Road, a garden on a steep slope constructed on three levels (right), and another where almost everything is grown in pots (below).






My final stop was for a cup of tea in a garden belonging to friends, in Belton Close - and delicious chocolate cake (their recommendation) .

They'd had a good day - it was about three o'clock (two hours to go) and they'd had nearly a hundred visitors. They are also opening
in the National Gardens Scheme in August, by which time their sunflower
hedge will be ready (just coming up on the right-hand side of the arch, beneath the sweetpeas). I sat in the shade of the shed (a table with an elegant parasol was taken) next to a fountain made up of cubes and relaxed in the cool, with the gentle sound of water in the background, looking out on to the drought-defying, lush lawn.