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| Aug 2010 Sunday 11 July will go down as a red-letter day for the gardeners of Dalton who opened for the National Garden Scheme (N.G.S.) for the first time as a group. In the past, Pear Tree Cottage has opened regularly for the scheme on its own, with help from many neighbours and friends. Last year a decision was made to join forces and offer a group opening with 4 other gardens that are new to the scheme. Preparations began months ago, problem areas discussed, even more friends and relatives persuaded to help on the day and the gardens lovingly prepared and maintained. Dave and Carol Haigh at 2 Forestry Houses could be seen working late into the evening most nights, in preparation. Anne and Mike Taylor at Russell Farm ensured that their borders were a riot of colour and the soft fruit and vegetable garden was coaxed into maximum production. Jane Hopwood and Richard Davey at 2 Bell House Barn continued to improve their interesting garden, which is still relatively new. Mary and Harold Newell at 1 Bell House Barn were often spotted coming back from garden centres with a car boot full of new plants and Linda and Alec Greening at Pear Tree Cottage extended a planting area in order to add yet more features, as well as busily propagating for their plant stall. High winds and torrential rain just before the event threatened to flatten many plants and a favourable weather forecast for Sunday was doubtful. Saturday saw a flurry of activity, ready for opening the next day. Catering equipment, tables and chairs, gazebos, parasols, signs and direction arrows all had to be in place. The plant stall at Pear Tree Cottage was almost groaning with the weight of plants. ’Dalton gardens prove a crowd puller’ Finally the big day arrived and it rained first thing in the morning! Friends and relatives arrived and final preparations were made. Luckily the sky cleared before 11.00 am just as the first visitors started arriving. Some had travelled for over an hour for the event and made a sprint for the plant stall. The cars kept coming - eventually the yard and small field at Russell Farm were full and a further nearby field was opened up. Jane Hopwood and her team were run off their feet with the refreshments, and still the cars kept coming! Then a large group of walkers from Bolton, who had planned their day around this event, arrived and it got even busier. Chris Connor’s famous pasties soon ran out and the catering team were stretched to the limit. Someone remarked, “I bet Dalton has never seen so many folk walking around” and he might just have been right. We certainly did not expect so many people. The gardens looked superb and the visitors were delighted. Statements such as, “What a fantastic day out”, “I’ve always wanting to look around these gardens” and “What a pleasure this has been”, were heard so many times. At mid-afternoon the sun shone at long last, just in time for the choir, that Mary Newell had organised from her local church, to sing English Country Garden Songs. Their voices resonated around Dalton and provided a delightful backdrop to the whole day. ’Dalton gardens compete with World Cup final’ The plant stall at Pear Tree Cottage started to look very bare. Carol Haigh even sold some of her courgettes. Eventually the visitors drifted away and the mammoth task of packing up began. All the gardeners and helpers finally finished up at Russell Farm for a Jacob’s Join and a well-earned glass, or two, of wine. It was several days before some of us finally recovered from the efforts of the day and then the final reckoning up took place. So, how did we do? We had 340 visitors during the day - can you imagine that amount of people wandering around your garden? The total raised for charity was a few pence short of £2,300. As county organisers for the N.G.S. we only have to hand records for the last 10 years, but we think this is the largest amount ever raised by a single N.G.S. opening in Cumbria. A huge thank you to all those who helped on the day and for the support given by the villagers of Burton. We could not have done this without you. The big question now is will we do it again? Well, as they say, watch this space! Linda and Alec Greening |
