‘Gallop Round The Gardens’ Review

Last Sunday the 15th June St Lawrence Community Association organised ‘Gallop Round The Gardens’, nine St Lawrence gardens normally hidden from public view were open for the day.

I have never visited private gardens before and with loads of things that needed doing in my own garden I was not sure about going or not. Thinking that it might be a chance that would not occur again my daughter and I decided to go at about 12:30 see a couple of gardens then come back and do some work here. When we returned home at just after 5pm we were too shattered to do much at all!

We saw our two gardens, went back to the Village hall had some excellent cake and a cup of tea while we planned which we were going to see next.

The garden owners were so welcoming, friendly and happy to answer questions about their gardens. We were also invited to visit two other gardens that were not actually open to the public by their owners, which was a real treat.

There was a wide variety of gardens, formal, ornamental, natural, vegetables being grown in wonderful raised beds and containers. They all had one thing in common, they were absolutely beautiful, many taking advantage of a challenging natural landscape rather than fighting it.

I also discovered something else Sunday afternoon, St Lawrence now has its own website and very good it is too. The site was started to promote the village and community spirit, when you see the ‘What’s On‘ page you can see they have succeeded.

There is plenty on the site to interest locals and visitors – there is a detailed guide to the Cliff Top Walk & The “Lower” Cliff Walk, if you printed it out you certainly would not get lost even if you had never been to the area before.

Loads of photos of walks, plants and wildlife; places of interest; history of St Lawrence; recipes; learn all about Well Dressing. Follow the progress of ‘The St Lawrence Peace Garden’ which is next to the Old Church. There is loads more that I have not mentioned, do take a look. www.stlawrenceiow.co.uk


Apologies, the photos are not wonderful, been having camera trouble, hopefully you can see enough to inspire you to go next year.