Hilltop Gardening Club: A visit to Helen Westendorp’s garden

IF YOU offer your garden for an evening’s visit you always hope for a lovely summer evening.

After weeks of dry weather and some lovely sunsets sadly, the evening of our visit took place after the first really wet day for ages.

As we met at the village hall to organise car sharing, the rain cleared briefly but returned later.

We were visiting Helen Westendorp’s garden at the bottom of Fidges Lane in Eastcombe.

This is a very narrow and steep lane where cars cannot pass so we organised car sharing for those wanting a lift, the rest walked.

We were met by Helen’s husband Gerwin who did a grand job in parking seven cars in a very small place.

The garden runs along the bottom of the valley and it has a stream running through it.

Helen is a landscape gardener so in the last three years she and her husband have created a beautiful garden of sinuous green paths, lenses of rich plantings, lines of purple beech hedging, a gravel path and covered areas for dining, entertaining, playing and resting.

Our members greatly enjoyed exploring this garden and we admired the grasses, Astilbes, Echinacea, Persicaria and other plants making the planted areas a feast for the eyes.

We had refreshments of biscuits, cheese and wine and despite the weather we all enjoyed a convivial evening.

We were also able to support the National Gardens Scheme charities.

For details about the club please telephone Ruth Fraser on 01452 770535 or look at our website hilltopgardeningclub.org.uk