Manuden Open Gardens: Father's Day event also features classic and sports car show plus teas and bees
This year's Manuden Open Gardens will appeal to car enthusiasts as much as to horticultural aficionados.
The event on Sunday June 20 – Father's Day – will consist of not only 16 gardens to view but also a classic and sports car show featuring some 20 specialist vehicles.
Jane Tresadern, one of the committee of seven organisers, said: "Village gardens open for viewing are of all varieties: big and small, wild and formal, new and old. There will be a bee-keeping demonstration in one of them."
The garden highlights include a family-friendly one with a vegetable patch and small gazebo with great views of the cricket pitch and fields beyond, and a colourful flower bed fronting Butt Lane with a rear garden containing mixed flowering shrubs, climbing plants, trees and a fish pond.
There is also a secret old walled terraced garden loved by songbirds with various shrubs, perennials and containers but not a blade of grass to be seen, and a family- and dog-friendly garden with raised vegetable beds, flower borders and unique art and craft features to add interest.
Manuden Village Community Centre in David Collins Drive (CM23 1EH), where there is ample parking, will be a focal point of the afternoon, hosting the car show featuring marques such as Austin Healey, Jaguar, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren, TVR, MG and Porsche.
The centre will also be selling teas, cakes and other refreshments and hosting a plant stall.
The event runs from 2pm to 6pm. Admission is by way of a £5 programme which features a map of the gardens on show, available from the community centre.
Bishop's Stortford estate agent Russell Properties, of North Street, is supporting the event by providing boards in participating gardens.
All proceeds will go to local village organisations, clubs and societies.
For further details, visit http://www.manuden.org.uk/Manuden-Open-Gardens.asp.
