Mellow Yellow?

What are the the Yellow Book Gardens? And where are they? Who decided to call them Yellow Book Gardens? Maybe we shall find out answers to these and other "ask Siri" questions when John Hinde tells us about "NGS Gardens of Cheshire – including the new ones" on Wednesday 14th March.

The NGS (National Garden Scheme) is a fundraising group that provides sites, cakes and tea over more months of the year than you might imagine (some opened in February).
Brave souls spend months preparing, primping, pruning, mulching, mowing and lawn edging before opening their gardens to the public on one or more days per year, gambling that the weather is good enough to bring in the crowds. (It often is, though this visitor has had more than one unintentional shower.)

We, the public, may go because we want to see how the other half live and garden. We may want to see how it – good gardening and garden designing – can be done well. We may want to see if they have unusual plants. And for many, the homemade cakes and teas are an integral part of the visitor experience, as important as the gardens, gardening advice and plant sales.

If you keep your eyes open for those distinctive tell-tale signs, you may find these gardens are closer to home than you realise. Living in Tattenhall, you can walk to at least one NGS garden, or cycle to a few others. A few are on bus routes. Within an hour, car owners can get to open gardens in North Wales, Staffordshire and Shropshire.

On March 14th, John Hinde will persuade us to start with Cheshire. He is honour bound to try, being the County Organiser for Cheshire, responsible for choosing or rejecting gardens for inclusion in the scheme. We can expect him to tell us something this process. He may point us to the website(s), newsletter signup option, and the NGS app. I am sure there will be sneak previews of the gardens that will open for the first time in 2018.

Come along to the Barbour Institute ahead of the 19.45 start, for tea, coffee and biscuits. Free entry for TGS members, £3 on the door for visitors.