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The Secret Gardens of Oxton Village 2002

The second Secret Gardens of Oxton event involved the opening up of twelve gardens within the Oxton Conservation area, as well as a plant sale, and a chance to purchase artwork from a number of local artists.
Prior to the event over five hundred tickets were purchased and on the day this rose to over 1100 ensuring that the day was a great success...

I made a couple of trips around the circuit of gardens with my camera and obtained permission to capture images from each of the gardens on the understanding that details on them would remain anonymous. As such I have not mentioned which of the gardens the following pictures come from..if you attended to event you will no doubt recognise them...if you didn't then you will have to wait until next year before you can work out which is which.

Where woz that then ..? click on the picture below to see some of the more obscure pictures that I took of objects hidden in the Secret Gardens of Oxton

This event is organised by the Oxton Society. To find out more about the Society and the activities that it organises throughout the village click on the Society Icon below

 

Entering the first Garden

A visitor studies the pictures showing the development of one of the gardens
The day began at 10:00 am, and once again the weather forecasters had managed to get their predictions wrong. As I walked along the road towards the first house there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and I was beginning to regret my decision to put a jacket on. With each house numbered, and a helpful map supplied at the start we set off through to the first gardens gate.

The route this year took in a lot more of the village and included gardens in Victoria Mount, Fairview Road, Poplar Road, Mount Pleasant, Arno Road, and Newburns Lane. This also gave those attending the opportunity to enjoy much of the scenery and architecture around the village.

Although the gardens were spread out they were also grouped together and one of the main things immediately noticeable was the difference in layout and features between each of the gardens visited. Not being an expert in flora and fauna I'm afraid that I cannot provide much commentary on the content of each garden however I have added a selection of images below that I acquired during my trip

Half way round the circuit we were given the opportunity of having some light refreshments ..judging by the number of people taking advantage of this I suspect that this particular garden proved very popular.

After a brief rest we set off on our journey round the remaining gardens. The trip took in a number of the minor roads of Oxton that are not commonly used and for me this proved every much as enjoyable as the gardens themselves.

A number of alleyways and backstreets later and we arrived at our final garden and a welcome sit down, where we soaked up the views.

Finally we walked round to Mount Pleasant where we browsed through the pictures on display by some of the local Oxton artists. This included paintings, prints and photographs. This welcome addition to the day appeared to be attracting quite a bit of interest from our fellow ramblers and must surely be repeated at future events

 

Our trip around the gardens took us nearly three hours to complete and at the end of it on return to the family abode there was only one thing I could bring myself to do .... cut the grass !!

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