Preparations are underway for a popular gardening event that is returning after a break of five years.
The Secret Gardens of Topsham usually takes place every other year but was interrupted due to the pandemic.
However, the owners of 12 gardens in the town will be inviting visitors ‘through the garden gate’ on the afternoon of Sunday, June 11.
The event, which raises money for Topsham Museum, has always brought hundreds of people to the town, eager to see a wide range of gardens, which are often hidden from view.
Nell and Marcus Parry have a walled garden in the centre of Topsham which is completely invisible to passers-by. Visitors to their little gem will also be able to meet the family’s rabbits, Valerie and Dom, who will be in the garden throughout the day.
Nell says, ‘There will be a bag of herbs for anyone who would like to feed them and I’m very happy to give people advice on how to keep rabbits - it’s not as easy as it looks.’
The couple have worked on the garden for the past four years, transforming it from hard standing and overgrown shrubs to become a wildlife-friendly haven with a pond and carefully selected frog (and rabbit) friendly plants.
The Parrys’ garden will be one of the smallest in the event which will also include substantial displays in several of the town’s most historic houses.
Museum president, Rachel Nichols, was one of the organisers of the first event in 2004.
‘It is a wonderful day for garden lovers of course, but it’s also a lovely event for the entire family who can explore the hidden paths and waterside walks of Topsham.
'Like all of our museum activities, this event is undertaken entirely by volunteers who have been planning it since last year, not to mention the owners who all take huge pride in displaying their beautiful plants and gardens.’
In addition to seeing the gardens themselves there will be a specialist plant stall at the museum’s waterside garden - including selections from some of the Secret Gardens themselves - and tea and home-made cakes at two lovely gardens along the route.
The gardens are open from noon to 6pm. Tickets at £8 are available to order from the museum’s website, or in person from May 8.
Greening a quarry
More than a thousands trees have been planted on the site of a quarry in mid Devon.
A group of 35 volunteers made up of local residents, members of environmental group the Uffculme Green Team and staff from Aggregate Industries joined forces at the weekend to plant around 1,100 trees at Hillhead Quarry in Cullompton.
The trees were native species, including English oak, hornbeam, hazel, blackthorn, hawthorn and holly and they were planted as part of an initiative to boost the area’s biodiversity.
They are sited between the quarry and the nearby block works, and the area was chosen as a good place to support wildlife by providing more habitat, in particular that needed by the hazel dormouse.
This elusive species has been declining, with numbers having dropped by 50 per cent since the millennium.
Josh Goodwin, is biodiversity and restoration advisor in Aggregate Industry’s sustainability team. He says: ‘It was great to see so many people coming out and giving up their free time to help support biodiversity in the local area.
‘As a company our approach to sustainability is integral in all that we do and supporting nature is a key part of that. Our quarries have biodiversity management plans which work to maintain and where possible enhance biodiversity on our sites.
‘With the South West being somewhat of a stronghold for the hazel dormouse, this planting, alongside previous woodlands we have created, will really benefit the species and give them a much-expanded habitat to hopefully thrive in for years to come.’
The new woodland will go on to be incorporated into the quarry's biodiversity management plan to ensure its success, with monitoring for the target species being undertaken once the woodland has been established.
