Glorious Sutton gardens set to welcome public for open events this weekend

Springbank House Garden and the East Meets West in the town will welcome visitors as part of the popular National Garden Scheme.

The scheme – which says it is ‘passionate’ about the health-giving benefits of gardens – offers visitors access to more than 3,600 private plots across England and Wales, while raising money for nursing and health charities.

Springbank House Garden, on Kirkby Road, is owned by Peter Robinson and features Mediterranean planting, a bog garden, summerhouse, a white garden, a water table from India and lion statues from Nepal.

Dug from a neglected wasteland in 2012, it displays hundreds of rare and specialist plants – while two terraces punctuate a slope and a woodland area with hardy exotics and a wildlife pond offers cobbled paths and mown grass garden circuits.

The East Meets West garden on Cowpes Close,belongs to Kate and Mel Calladine.

In the East, their garden features sizable acers, bamboos and Japanese lanterns, while a stream flows past a cloud tree into a pond with goldfish and water lilies.

Meanwhile, West has a trompe l'oeil arch – which creates a magical garden illusion with an arch shaped 'rainbow' flower bed – and the front drive has pink/white borders and 'green' camouflage for bins.

The Springbank House Garden opens in conjunction with East Meets West, both from noon-5pm, on Sunday, July 4.

There is only one admission price for entry to both gardens. Pre-booking is available and admission is £5, while children can visit for free.

Over the years, the National Garden Scheme has donated more than £60m to nursing and health charities and handed out £2.88mi in 2020 – with beneficiaries including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute.

On its website, the National Garden Scheme claims it ‘doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – we are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too’.

"We also support charities doing amazing work in gardens and health and grant bursaries to help community gardening projects,” it says.

To find out more about the garden openings, go to https://ngs.org.uk/view-garden/35649