Lymm Jubilee Gardening Club

1. June 25th - June 27th Residential Trip to Belgium

Pick up	Time	Location
Barsbank	8.15am	Bus stop on main road
Lymm Cross	8.30am	Village centre bus stop
Jolly Thresher	8.45am	Outside the pub car park
High Legh	8.55am	Outside village hall opposite car park

Please be at your pick up point at least 15 minutes prior to your departure time.

Day One

We will leave Lymm as above and travel to York Gate Garden near Leeds.

The garden was listed in The Times 2017 as ‘The 7th Best Garden to Visit in the UK’
Created by the Spencer family between 1951 and 1994, it is now owned and cared for by the charity Perennial.

York Gate is widely recognized as an outstanding example of 20th century garden design.
The one acre garden is divided into a series of smaller gardens with different themes and in contrasting styles.
These include the Dell with half-hidden pathways and a stream, the famous herb garden with topiary and summerhouse, and a newer more contemporary garden with grasses and summer-flowering perennials.
Other highlights include the White Garden with roses, peonies and campanulas and a Kitchen Garden.
York Gate is also noted for its striking architectural features and a succession of exquisite vistas.
There is a shop stocked with a lovely range of gifts.

After leaving the garden we will then go to a nearby hotel for a buffet lunch.

After lunch we will travel to Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens.

Stillingfleet Lodge Garden is a quintessentially English garden, managed to be as wildlife friendly as possible.
It is a family garden, lovingly planted-up over 40 years and now comprises a series of small gardens surrounding the family home, opening out into an avenue that leads to a wild flower meadow.
The planting emphasises a cottage garden style and every part is maintained organically. Seed heads are purposefully left on as food for birds and cutting back is limited to provide habitat for insects.

For visitors who prefer more formal gardens the owners have incorporated an elegant rill garden with minimalistic planting.
The perennial wild flower meadow is a haven for native plants and wildlife and visitors are encouraged to sit and enjoy the tranquil atmosphere around the naturally planted pond.
In keeping with the ethos of sustainability, there is an organic vegetable plot, which is very much the owners kitchen garden.
Together with the orchard and rare breeds of poultry the garden provides the owners with food throughout the year.

The plant Nursery specialises in unusual perennial plants, many of which can be seen in the garden.
It has one of the largest ranges of hardy Geraniums in the UK and also a huge selection of plants that thrive in the shade, such as Pulmonaria and Brunnera.

After leaving Stillingfleet Gardens we will travel to Hull to catch the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge. Dinner bed and breakfast are included.

Day Two

Firstly we will travel to visit Ghent University Botanical Gardens.
The original Ghent University Botanical Garden was housed in 1797 in the Baudeloo abbey but due to the strong air pollution it was decided to move it on the edge of the newly built Citadel Park.
The move to the new "Botanical Institute" was completed in 1903.
Since then, the Botanical Garden has continued to evolve and grow.

There are over 10,000 different varieties of plants in the tropical and subtropical greenhouses of the University's Botanical Garden which are both flourishing and fascinating.
The unique collection of Mediterranean plants alone is well worth a visit.

We will then visit Adegem Gardens where lunch will be provided.

This is a series of gardens which include a romantic French garden with thousands of roses, an English landscaped garden with ponds and waterfalls, a Japanese garden with beautiful boulders symbolising human life from birth till death and beyond and an exotic garden with Menhirs and druid-circles."

Later in the day we will return to Zeebrugge for the overnight ferry back to Hull.
Dinner bed and breakfast are included.

Day Three

Back in England we will travel to Breezy Knees Gardens near York.

If you visited this field in 1998, you would have seen a bleak area of grass that stretched for miles across the horizon towards York.
You wouldn't have guessed that 20 years later, an unassuming Yorkshire couple would have managed to single-handedly transform what had been an unforgiving landscape into one of Yorkshire's most idyllic flower gardens.

Vibrant borders, sparkling fountains and a myriad of blossom awaits you at Breezy Knees Gardens.
Now covering 20 acres they are one of the largest gardens in the North of England and with over 6,000 different varieties of plants to discover.
There’s always lots to see, with the extensive borders that form the heart of the gardens giving a succession of flowers all the way through from May to the end of September.
There are various garden rooms including the Pond and Shade Garden, the Rock Gardens, the annual meadow, the Cottage Garden, the Rose Garden, the September Garden and the Conifer Garden.

Our final garden of the holiday is RHS Harlow Carr where lunch can be obtained at your own expense.

RHS Garden Harlow Carr in Yorkshire covers 68 acres.
Set in a valley and very much a part of the Yorkshire countryside, the garden has a wide variety of growing landscapes, from running and still water to woodland and wildflower meadows.

One of Yorkshire’s most relaxing and innovative gardens at the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, RHS Harlow Carr is a showcase of horticultural excellence all year round!
The garden includes a woodland garden, a herbaceous garden, rock, bog and alpine gardens, the UK’s longest streamside garden, wildflower meadows, perennial borders and a kitchen garden.

We hope to arrive back in Lymm at about 7.15pm.