Each summer the

   

Group takes an excursion to two or three local gardens that are not normally open to the public. Each visits starts with a lunch which is followed by an exploration of the garden itself. The hosts usually also provide a cup of tea and often home made scones and cakes. During the summer of 2000 some lovely gardens in the villages of Bittadon, Nymet Rowland and Blakewell were enjoyed in perfect weather.

 

In 2001 visits have been made to gardens at 'Maytime', at littleham near to Bideford and the the 'Gatehouse' at Lee, Ilfracombe.

In the last visit, to Gorwell House in Barnstaple, the group enjoyed a personal guided tour first of the walled garden, in which there wre plants from South America being grown on an experimental basis for a Scottish Research Institute, then of a very extensive arboretum containing many unusual shrubs and trees. Here, the successful creation of a micro-climate could be found in the presence of a small plantation of bananas which appeared to have successfully withstood the rigours of the North Devon Winter for many years.