Well here we are back after a busy and successful 6 months in the garden.
Our garden on show kicked off on 1st July with a visit of 32 Swedish gardeners on a Garden Tour holiday of gardens down here in the south of England.
Just after Christmas 2010 we had been contacted by ARD TV in Germany, asking if they could come to our garden on an open day to film part of a programme to be shown on German tv later in 2011. There was a slight problem as our first open day was on 10th July which was too late to meet their deadline for filming. So we offered them to come on the day the Swedish would arrive at our garden.
Several months elapsed before ARD got back to us to confirm they would like to film, AND they would pay us. I dare not ask how much as the BBC had not paid a penny several years ago when they were filming with us for 9 hours.
So true to word they arrived before the Swedish coach and set up the camera to record the arrival and garden tour which lasted for a couple of hours. After we had fed the Swedish and said our goodbyes, the crew of four stayed on to film with us till late afternoon. I must say it was quite an enjoyable day. The film crew, and producer were easy to work with. ( We must be getting used to this TV business).
The programme has already been shown on German TV, and we were sent a copy on DVD.
The 45 minute film started off with the Famous garden of Great Dixter in East Sussex, and then showed the start of the making of the Monaco garden at Chelsea flower show this year, then came the not so famous Lyn and Malcolms Garden.
Also featured were David Austin Roses, Abbey gardens in Wiltshire ( The naked gardeners) and The World garden in Kent.
Four days after the Swedish visit, we had another coach, this time from Leeds, on a similar Garden Tour holiday, with 41 people on board.
Then a rest for 6 days when we had our first open day of the year with 270 visitors through the gate.
Several small private visits followed till we came to our Wednesday open afternoon, which had 184 visitors in the 3 hours we were open, and it was my birthday too, so good for so many to come !!
More private visits on and off till our final open day on 14th August where we had another great day with 286 visitors. Then more small private visits.
So a record year again with a total of 864 visitors all together and £2855 given to the National Garden scheme towards the charities they support. This really should be the last time we will beat our record for visitors.
Just a month after our last opening, my sisters husband died from cancer, which had been diagnosed in February. So we have been spending more time with my sister, trying to help her in her bereavement.
Today we put on a dinner for our helpers on our open days, to in a small way thank them for giving of their time, we couldn’t open our garden without their help on those days.
Malcolm
