You like to have your city gardens designed beautifully?
Do you like the look of upcycled items? What is the best place to plant your vegetable patch?
You’ll be amazed at how the different gardens in the city respond to similar soils, architectural styles and climate.
Every year on the last Sunday in June, Faversham hosts the Faversham Open Gardens & Garden Market Day. Up to 30 gardens are open on June 30th, 2019, from 10am-5pm.
The gardens may be very different but the ideas they share can work in any town garden. I have selected the most inspiring ideas that came from past open gardens.
Plants can be coloured to match your front door.
Posy Gentles in Newton Road has recently repainted the front doors and windows. It’s now time to give the pots a new look in the front yard.
First, plant the vegetables.
It makes perfect sense that the vegetable growing area is now right outside your back door. The garden on Norman Road begins with vegetable beds and opens into a grassy area. It has an attractive seating area at the end.
You can even put it in the middle…
Sarah Langton Lockton has a double-width garden in which she grows kale, lettuce, and beans.
Choose a theme that is jungle-themed.
You probably saw Monty Don plant an Ethiopian Banana Palm in Longmeadow, his border, on Gardener’s world, right?
Mary Mackay is a B&B proprietor who has been planting exotic plants in her garden for over twenty years. Mary Mackay has been filling her garden in a small town with exotic-looking plants since over 20 years.
Meadows in small-town gardens
A meadow doesn’t require a big garden. Julian and Amanda Mannering own a walled square garden. A friend once suggested that they create a small meadow at the center of their garden. They did.
It’s not as simple to create a meadow by stopping the lawn mowing. Ox-eye daisies, among other wildflowers, took a couple of years to establish. It wasn’t hard.
You can paint your fences
They painted the fences and bench in blue. The blue was bright at first, but soon weathered and became a lovely backdrop to plant.
Keep (almost!) to one colour scheme
This beautiful garden is owned by a Scandinavian woman, who has used white and gray in the garden.
Avoid having too many hardscape elements
Many town gardens have many different features. The same owner may put up a patio, and the next one a shed.
Sarah Langton Lockton owned old brick walls in her garden, as well as a brick shed that was a bit newer. She also bought a greenhouse made of half brick. When it came time to choose the path she decided on brick.
The garden looks calm because the bricks look different, but are still the same.
Plant swaps and Freegle/Freecycle can help you furnish your garden at no cost.
The Knole has many surprises hidden behind its garden gate. The gardens in this area are brand new for Faversham Open Gardens.
The garden is a narrow space that extends into a marshy forest. Owner sourced free car tyres to create a pathway, used mannequins in the garden as sculptures and got many plants through plant swaps.
You can find here. It’s great if you are cleaning your home, because people will take away the unwanted items.
Plant swaps are usually organized by your local horticultural societies. RHS offers a service to help you find local gardening groups.
Bed sculptures can be the focal point of your bed
The clever placement of this sculpture maximizes the form of the tree. It also distracts the eye from any weed that may be present.
The garden is owned by Colin Rushton and was also newly created this year. This is a long and thin town garden with tall historic walls, a great sense of history, and high historical walls.
Support Wildlife
The birdhouse/feeder is a stunning focal point on Colin Rushton’s terrace. This house has a lot of character. The house was originally a farmhouse from the seventeenth century, but was transformed into a Georgian pub. It then received a makeover during Victoria’s reign. In the 1950s it was used as a meeting place for trade unions. It became a home in 1960.