Villagers in Staffordshire open up gardens for charity
Villagers are opening up their gardens for the public to enjoy
A popular Open Gardens event is back by popular demand in Whittington, Lichfield, allowing visitors the chance to peek behind gates to see what the green-fingered villagers have been up to during lockdown.
As many as 10 privately owned gardens and three public spaces, including a wildflower meadow will be on show to the public on June 26 and June 27. The colourful displays and wildlife-friendly plots will be open from 11am to 5 pm each day.
Whittington Open Gardens event has been organised by the Whittington & Fisherwick Environment Group and is being sponsored by a locally-based company, Fortress Recycling, and many other businesses.
Proceeds from the event will go to the Environment Group to enable them to continue work on various projects aimed at making the parish beautiful while encouraging wildlife.
Karen Tatlow, a 52-year-old garden designer, will be one of the garden owners allowing visitors a peek at her hard work.
She said: "The Environment Group do a lot of projects designed for the benefit of the village and local villagers are encouraged to also garden in an environmental way by creating hedgehog highways and hedgehog homes and have also created a wild-flower meadow.
"The gardens on show will include one which is a modern take on a traditional kitchen garden, a sunken garden, cottage gardens and, of course, Swan Meadow, and mine, which is based on arts and crafts."
Mike Kinghan, the Group chairman, said: "We know from many sources that we have seen big declines in many wildlife species and that gardens can play a big part in providing food and shelter for the wild creatures that give us so much pleasure.
"WFEG is encouraging our residents to garden in a wildlife-friendly way, including promoting Hedgehog Highways to support our much loved but threatened prickly friends."
Villagers are proud to have been awarded a Gold in the Heart of England in Bloom competition in 2019.
They began planting a Community Orchard in Autumn 2012, which now also contains a Bee-garden, created by local Brownies.
The Middleton Bridge Garden also won the Heart of England in Bloom chairman's award in 2018.
Free car parking will be available in the village with Blue Badge parking at St Giles Hospice and tickets cost £5 for adults with under-18s free-of-charge and refreshments will be served in some of the gardens and elsewhere in the village.
