About
our garden:
We garden in South Cheshire in the small village of Hankelow. Our
garden reflects our
passion for herbaceous perennials and we try to use them in varied ways -
sometimes formal and colour themed, and at other times free-flowing, informal
and innovative. Our aim is to be able to trial plants in a real garden setting
so that we can offer advice from experience and provide a true assessment of the
merits and demerits of a plant. Hankelow is about 60m above sea level at the edge of Cheshire plain. We have
a plot of about a third of an acre. About half of it is given over to garden,
the remainder is for our nursery stock beds. The house and garden were new in 2000.
In 2010 we are continuing to develop and change the gardens. This year's project
is to replant our display beds in a more "designed" style.
Our soil is a good grey-black silt overlying sand and gravel, richly peppered
with builders rubble in places. Generally it is just on the acid
side of neutral. We have had to break up a compacted layer about 2ft below the surface and now the soil is free
draining, easy to work but holds little moisture or nutrients. Because of its
recent past as a piece of neglected grazing land, the soil is full of weed seed
that germinates every time the soil is disturbed.
For those of you who don't know Cheshire we have a climate that fits into
hardiness zone 8 with occasional mild winters nearer to zone 9 (and this year
2009/10 more like zone 7). We have plenty
of rain, and strong winds thanks to our openness to the west.
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Garden
Open Days 2010:
Our garden is open for
the NGS 12pm - 5pm on:
 | June 20*, 26, 27 |
 | July 3, 4, 10, 11 |
 | August 7, 8 |
 | September 4, 11, 19 |
National Collection of Helenium open
days
 | August 14/15 |
Click here for
directions. *
Come early on the 20th June and see over 250 historic vehicles assemble on
the village green before leaving to parade in the Audlem Festival of
Transport at about 12pm.
Further details from the Audlem Special Events Website by clicking
here. If you want to avoid the parade leaving Hankelow, delay your
visit until 1pm or after. Group
visits welcome at other times by appointment |