Whitwick & District U3A - Gardens Group
This group is for those with a general interest in all aspects of gardening. The programme is varied including visits local gardens of interest, member's gardens for social events, speakers and demonstrations.
Please note The group is currently closing to any new members as it has become rather large making visits to smaller gardens difficult. There will be a waiting list and anyone interested should contact the Group Leader to be added to the waiting list.
Timing
Normally Thursday, approx Monthly.
Next meeting Thu Nov 12th
Venue
Hall Lane Methodist Church during winter months
2026
More details are given each month in the Update and members receive a detailed email prior to the meetings.
No meeting in January
Thu Feb 12th We have a speaker, Carleen Osborne, who will be telling us about designing and building her show garden at BBC Gardener's World Live at the NEC last year. Full details will be sent to group members.
Thu Mar 12th Tell us about your Garden, share your successes, hints and tips.
Thu Apr 9th 2.00 pm Barracca, Earl Shilton, an NGS garden. This is a 1 acre garden with lots of different areas including a silver birch walk, wildlife pond, patio area with climbing roses and wisteria, vegetable beds and lawns surrounded with herbaceous plants and shrubs. The cost of the visit together with tea/coffee and cake will be £10 per person.
Thu May 14th We will be meeting at 2pm at Green Acres, Makeney Road, Holbrook, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 0TF, an NGS garden where there is parking next to the house. May is a lovely month for colour and interest in the garden and the owner will conduct a tour and serve refreshments including cake for a cost of £10 each which is donated to the NGS. Further details of the visit will be sent nearer the time by email to members,
Thu Jun 4th David Austin Roses, a day trip by coach. The cost of the coach will be £25 per head with an optional guided tour at a cost of £10. Please note this is not the usual day for a GG visit. Online booking is now open here. Currently there are only 4 places left
Tue Jul 7th Visit to Kelmarsh Hall, a day trip by coach. There are no guided tours at Kelmarsh as there are guides in the rooms in the Hall. There are no guided tours of the gardens on the day we visit. There is a cafe with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, which serves light lunches, cake and drinks. there is also seating around the garden if you bring your own food. Total cost £ 37. Online booking is now open here. Currently there are places available
Thu Aug 13th Annual BBQ lunch and Plant swap in Griffydam.
Thu Sep 10th The Manor House, Cossington, an NGS garden. This is a beautiful and accessible rural garden with a variety of mature trees and attractive mixed borders which should appeal to all garden enthusiasts. The cost of the visit together with tea/coffee and cake will be £12 per person.
Thu Oct 8th CORRECTION TO DATE Norwell Garden and Nursery, near Newark. A guided tour of a lovely garden with many late flowering plants and with the opportunity to purchase them. When we visit there should be a good display of Asters and Chrysanthemums, plus grasses and some unusual Autumn flowering plants in the garden. The added bonus is that this is a nursery as well so plenty of opportunity to indulge in some plant buying. The cost of £11 per person is for a guided tour of the garden with Dr Ward, tea/coffee and home made cake.
Thu Nov 12th A workshop to produce a Christmas Table Decoration.
Thu Dec 10th Annual Christmas Lunch.
Gardens 2020
Pictures from members' gardens can be found on this page
Virtual tours.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Virtual garden tours on House Beautiful. This site uses a large number of cookies which it invites you to accept, but you can decline and it still functions.
Contact
For further information on any of the garden days contact Fran Johnson
at 
Please note that as an anti-spam measure e-mail addresses on this site are NOT links, but should be manually copied
Pictures
Below are pictures from a recent Gardens event. More pictures are in the gallery.
Gardens Group - July 2026In July the Gardens Group and the History Group visited Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire. Kelmarsh Hall is a beautiful house with an award winning garden, the main feature of which is the triangular shaped walled garden. We had a lovely day, members were able to visit both the House and Garden at their leisure and enjoy a very tasty lunch plus tea and cake. What more could a u3a trip require. You can see more pictures of Kelmarsh Hall itself if you visit the History Group webpage - click here. |
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Gardens Group - June 2026On Thursday, June 4th the Garden Group set off, in the rain, for a visit to David Austin Roses at Albrighton. Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time we arrived and it stayed fine all day. The roses were splendid, the scent hit you as soon as you entered the gardens and the range of colours and types was wonderful. Several of the party had a conducted tour of the gardens, led by Charlie, who was a very good guide and told us all about the different roses and also some explanation of how they are bred. She knew so much, was very enthusiastic and willing to answer all our questions. The rest of the group were happy to enjoy a wander in the gardens. We all enjoyed out morning coffee, lunch and tea and cake and also some retail therapy. Many roses were purchased and everyone agreed it had been a splendid day out. |
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Gardens Group - May 2026 - Scroll down for recently added pictures.The May visit for the Garden Group was to Greenacres, an NGS garden near Belper. It was a beautiful garden with wild areas, a large pond, patio and some herbaceous borders. The views over the surrounding countryside were spectacular in all directions. A really beautiful feature was the large number of purple aliums which were planted in drifts in the wooded area. |
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Recently added pictures........... 
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Gardens Group - April 2026On 9th April the Gardens Group had a very enjoyable visit to Baracca, an NGS garden at Earl Shilton. The garden was full of Spring colour with some beautiful fritillary, daffodils and anemonies in the border. |
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Gardens Group - September 2025On Thursday 18th September we made a visit to Goadby Marwood . Our stroll around the lakes and garden was interrupted by a terrific hail storm, but we all managed to find shelter somewhere. |
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Gardens Group - August 2025On 14th August the Garden Group held their annual BBQ Lunch and Plant Swap at the home of our member, Roger Bisgrove, Bis to all of us! The weather was very kind to us, unlike last year, and the gazebos shaded us instead of protecting us from the rain. A total of thirty eight members enjoyed a selection of barbecued food cooked expertly by Bis and Pete. We also had a selection of savoury items and delicious desserts provided by the members. Bis's garden was as lovely and interesting as always and a happy time was spent chatting, eating and wandering in the garden. |
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Gardens Group - July 2025On July 8th the Garden group and History groups made a joint visit to Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Lamport Hall is a beautiful house with a lovely garden and lots of interest in both of these. The garden featured in a recent Monty Don programme when he visited Gardens of Great Britain. It is famously the 'home of the garden gnome' and they have the oldest garden gnome in the world on the premises. We were lucky to have a lovely, sunny day for our visit and were treated to a garden and house tour, both of which were interesting. This may pave the way for other joint ventures between these two groups. |
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Gardens Group - June 2025In June we visited Brickfield House in Cottingham on a lovely, sunny day. This garden overlooks the Welland Valley with stunning views in all directions. The garden has been developed from a sloping brickyard over 37 years by the owners, Simon and Nicki Harker. There is a kitchen garden, herbaceous borders packed with beautiful perennials and roses, an orchard and many pots filled with succulents, herbs and annuals. The roses were especially beautiful and Nicki told us that she had over 50 varieties. |
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Gardens Group - May 2025 The May visit for the Garden Group was to The New Barn at Desford, an NGS garden. The garden was delightful and full of interest. It is a large, sloping garden with many trees providing shade and plenty of plant interest. There is a collection of asters, some Benton roses and National Collection of Geranium Phaeum cultivars. We made this an evening visit, a departure from our normal afternoon but it was still very enjoyable and the coffee and cake provided by the owners was very much appreciated. Anthony made an excellent guide and his knowledge was amazing. |
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Gardens Group - February 2025 This month the Garden Group visited Pauline Little's garden in Repton where we enjoyed a beautiful display of winter flowers and flowering shrubs. The snowdrops were particularly interesting as Pauline has many different varieties from the common one we see in our own gardens and growing wild to tall ones, tiny ones and those with frilled edged petals or delicate green markings on the petals. |
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Gardens Group - November 2024 November's not a time to be out in the garden, so instead the Garden Group had a glass fusion workshop to make hangings for the garden, the Christmas tree or the home. Not a craft most of us had ever tried, but the results are lovely! |
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Gardens Group - September 2024 The Garden Group had a very enjoyable visit to Kelmarsh Hall on September 12th. The gardens are Grade 11 listed and were open for Heritage Open week so we were fortunate to get free entry and a very interesting garden tour by the Head Gardener giving us information about the planting and history of the garden. The asters, dahalias and heleniums gave a very colourful display and the tomatoes in the polytunnels were a sight to behold! |
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Gardens Group - August 2024 The Garden Group held their annual BBQ lunch and Plant Swap at the home of Roger Bisgrove on Thursday, August 8th. A good time was had by all despite the very wet weather. Bis's garden was as lovely and interesting as always. Members provided an interesting of selection of food, the desserts were particularly splendid and Pete and Bis did a wonderful job on the barbecue. All proving that gardeners are not put off by the weather. |
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Gardens Group - July 2024 (Scroll down for recently added pictures) We had a very good time at the Dorothy Clive Garden despite the weather, it rained all day, a fine rain but very 'wetting'! However, the garden was beautiful, the gardener, Adrian, who did our guided tour was very good, the cafe provided excellent food, especially the cake and our driver Sharon got us there and back safely. What more could we ask apart from some sunshine! To compensate for this the raindrops on the foliage and grasses looked stunning. |
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Recently added pictures....
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Gardens Group - June 2024 The Garden Group visited a beautiful NGS garden in Repton in June, 10 Chestnut Way owned by Pauline Little. The garden is a mixture of herbaceous borders, a dry area with gravel and a very interesting shrub and tree area with interesting planting for shade. Pauline showed us round and is a mine of information who happily dug up small plants for those of us keen to have them in our own gardens. She does all the work herself with only 3 hours a week help from a Ukrainian gentleman - we were very impressed, she puts a lot of us to shame. |
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Gardens Group - April 2024 The Garden Group visited Bank Cottage at Newtown Linford and enjoyed spring flowers, cake, tea and a chat in this beautiful cottage garden. |
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Gardens Group - November 2023 The Gardens Group enjoyed a very good session on Willow Weaving for our November meeting. Mavis has completed her wreath at home and I think you will agree that it makes a very attractive decoration for her front door. |
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The Gardens Group Annual Lunch, August 2023 The Gardens Group Lunch this year was held in Bis' wonderful garden, which gains added attractions each time we visit. The weather was very good to us with sunshine all day. |
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And here we all are ........
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Hopton Hall Gardens - July 2023 The Garden Group visit to Hopton Hall Gardens proved to be a lovely day out with the weather being very kind to us. Lunch time snacks at the Cafe Impromptu set us up nicely for a leisurely wander around the gardens, in particular the Rose Garden and the border flowers along the Crinkle Crankle Wall. |
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The Old Barn - June 2023 The Garden Group visited The Old Barn, Stretton en le Fields, in June on a beautiful sunny day. The garden was very interesting comprising of a lawn and borders, wild area with some fruit trees and mown paths to wander through, a walled garden, pond and many shady seating areas. There was also the added attraction of 22 peacocks, some of them peahens, and some chicks! We were welcomed by the owner and his wife and after a short talk about the development of the garden we were free to roam. A lovely selection of cakes plus tea were available so altogether an excellent way to spend the afternoon. This garden is open during the year on specific days as part of the National Garden Scheme and I would recommend a visit. |
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Belvoir Castle Gardens - April 2023 Despite the threat of heavy showers in the weather forecast 13 members attended Belvoir Castle Gardens on Thursday 13th April. In fact, there was only one shower during an otherwise bright and quite sunny afternoon. |
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Bridge Nursery - September 2022 The Garden Group's latest visit was to Bridge Nursery in Warwickshire, a nursery with a beautiful garden specialising in grasses. We spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering in the garden after an introduction from the owner. Several cars went home loaded with a variety of tall grasses! |
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Annual lunch - August 2022 The Garden Group held their annual lunch in the garden of Les and Mary on August 12th . It was a very hot day but we had a lovely time and enjoyed some good food, company and even colour in the garden. |
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Ingarsby - July 2022 We visited White House Farm at Ingarsby on a lovely sunny day. It was a spectacular garden which the owners had created out of nothing twenty years ago. It is an NGS garden, open a few times a year on special days and for groups by appointment. It is certainly worth a visit, opening times are in the NGS booklet for Leicestershire, and the homemade cake is good too! |
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Easton Walled Gardens - June 2022 On Thursday, 9th June members visited Easton Walled Gardens, near Grantham. We very much enjoyed the variety of flowers in the garden and although the sweet pea season does not start until next week there were some to see and they were beautiful. |
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Lea Gardens, Nr Matlock - May 2022 Fifteen of us had a lovely trip to Lea Gardens, the rhododendrons and azaleas were spectacular and several members said the cake was pretty good too! |
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The Acers, Hinckley - March 2022 The Garden Group visited The Acers, Hinckley this month where we were given a talk and tour of the garden by Dave Baggott the owner. He specialises in snowdrops and acers and has an interest in Japanese gardens . The snowdrops were coming to an end but the other spring bulbs were coming into their own and we learnt that a single snowdrop bulb can be sold for over a £1000 pounds! We had a very pleasant afternoon, finished off with tea and homemade cake and I think some of the group will be returning in September to see the acers in full glory. |
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