Beeston Garden Trail delight

Earlier today we walked to the Victoria Hotel, which backs onto Beeston railway statio, for an early lunch so that we could be ready for a 1pm start, with a view to visiting five gardens on the Beeston & Chilwell Garden Trail.

Yesterday (Saturday) must have been a washout for the garden owners because, as locals will know, it rained all day and although Sunday was overcast the weather forecasts (all of them) were saying it would be 3pm before the rain came.

On the way we caught sight of a tram and watched it pull away from the new Beeston Interchange as it headed towards Nottingham.

This will be a common enough sight a few months from now when the trams finally come into service. For now this is just a glimpse of the everyday future that awaits Beeston.

Our first garden was within yards of the Victoria Hotel, where we had an excellent lunch. I am showing you the gardens with no names, so enjoy a few of the photographs I took. We walked home via four gardens and it was only the fine penetrating drizzle which stopped us visiting a fifth.

The photograph below does not show it, but by the time we reached the fourth garden the rain had set in for the rest of the afternoon and we quickly had the garden to ourselves.

Our own garden is a picture thanks to all the work put in by the previous owner. This year, apart from planting runner beans, some salad stuff and plants from friends and family, we are just watching. 

Yesterday we saw a hedgehog in the garden. Perhaps what I have enjoyed the most is continuing to have a small pond (we had one in our Lenton garden, which had newts and was used by birds). One thing which never flowered for some reason was the water lilies, so you can imagine how delighted I was to see the scene below. They opened on Saturday in all the heavy rain and I took the photograph yesterday.

All four gardens we visited gave us ideas. The blue clematis on the corner of a garage was fantastic. Even if it looked as good as this for just one day, it would be worth all the effort, but it was, perhaps, the display of baby hostas in their little pots which caught our attention and, after chatting with the garden owner in the rain, some ideas about how and where to grow them in our own garden. We will be growing hostas in pots quite soon and protecting them with a home-made 'garlic spray' to a recipe we were given yesterday.

It was a great day out, despite the weather. A good walk, good food and local gardens we were able to visit thanks to all the garden owners and organisers of the Beeston & Chilwell Garden Trail. We are looking forward to next year already.