The Open Gardens day on 11 June 2006 will be raising money for this year's Parish Project supporting Kagando Hospital in Uganda
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Parish Project 2006

Open Gardens - 11 June 2006

Open Gardens 2006It was blooming marvellous! Our first Open Gardens event was a great success - the sun shone and crowds flocked to see the gardens that were open to the public. The busiest gardens, six all within easy walking distance of the St Mary's Church, attracted nearly 350 visitors, no doubt delighted to get away from the wall to wall World Cup coverage. What a joy to see so many people bearing their yellow leaflets bring the village to life on a Sunday afternoon stopping and socialising with one another.

The gardens were beautifully manicured - hardly a weed to be found - just an array of floral colour and delight. May's rain and June's warmth and sunshine had left the gardens in tip-top condition with perennials coming into bloom and even the roses opening up the day or so before the event. If you weren't there you missed an absolute treat. And it was a worthwhile event as well with over £2,000 being raised, mostly to support St Mary's Parish Project - the Friends of Kagando Hospital in Uganda.

Thanks must go to the eleven owners of gardens and allotments who were the key to the event's success having worked so hard to make their plots look so attractive. Most spent their Sunday afternoon fielding questions about their gardens and, in some cases, talking about and learning from visitors about the history of their properties. In addition, thanks must go to all those helpers who manned stalls, served refreshments, potted up plants, put on displays, helped the garden owners and generally helped to make the afternoon what it was.

Never mind if you missed the Open Gardens, you can see pictures of the event on St Mary's website: www.stmaryseatonbray.org.uk and, hopefully you will be able to come next year as the event looks set to become an annual event in the Village Calendar. The second Sunday in June seems to be a good date to choose - next year that will be Sunday 10 June.

Already we have new offers to open gardens in 2007 - if you live in Eaton Bray, Edlesborough or Northall and would consider opening your garden next year please get in touch with Gordon Gray.