We’re coming to the end of the open gardens season now, but I thought I’d share with you a wonderful garden I visited earlier in the summer. Back in July, I had the pleasure of visiting the garden at Fraithwen near Tregynon, here in Mid Wales.
Sydney Thomas has been opening her garden for the National Garden Scheme for twenty years this year and was presented with a National Garden Scheme fork and certificate in recognition of her wonderful work and support for the charity. Sydney is a very knowledgeable plantswoman and it was great to see her in action when anyone asked about a particular plant (and she could tell you what it was from a brief description of where it was in her garden!).
Fraithwen has such a beautiful sweeping garden and you can see why National Garden Scheme visitors have been going back year after year.
The one and a half-acre garden lies on the gentle slope of a hill. It has herbaceous borders, rockeries, ponds and a wealth of wildlife. Birds tweeted, bees buzzed and butterflies fluttered all around the garden while we were there. Even Sydney’s cat appeared for a bit of a fuss. You imagine the countryside to be quiet and peaceful, but Sydney’s garden is alive with the sound of nature!
Volunteers served plenty of tea and cake throughout the afternoon and the stall selling plants from Sydney’s garden did a good trade (with money from sales donated to deserving health charities through the National Garden Scheme).
Fraithwen is now open by arrangement (on pre-agreed dates) until the end of October. So if you wish to visit this beautiful garden this year, you’ll need to be quick! Please contact Sydney to discuss dates (details on the National Garden Scheme website).
30 Comments
Johanna Bradley
Lovely plants, Nikki 🙂 🙂 There isn’t an equivalent scheme in Portugal that I know of. Shame because it’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon.
Derrick Knight
Splendid, well photographed, tour
Joanne Sisco
omg – the gardens you have in the UK! It seems to me that over there you treat gardening like a work of living art!!
Carol
I am in love with this garden – great photos too. I want to live there.
Somewhere in Ireland
What a wonderful tour of this garden, it is beautiful as are your photos. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful weekend.
Kris P
What a spectacular garden! You captured it’s beauty and its magic well, Nikki. I don’t think there’s another country in the world that does gardens as well as the UK – and no one here serves cake at open garden tours!
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
So beautiful!
'Wisps of Words'
So lovely to see what I refer to as “Wild Gardening.” As opposed to excessively neat and contained gardening.
Very “Cottage-y Garden” looking. It makes me smile…
LL Cool Joe
That cake looks very tasty!
Eunice Ratcliffe
A beautiful garden and beautiful photos, the close-ups are stunning 🙂
Sophie Wentworth
These are such lovely gardens! You got some incredible photos of the flowers x
Sophie
lolaWi
what a feast to the eyes and the senses! beautiful garden. you photos are incredibly amazing! thank you for sharing 🙂
yvonne@FictionBooks
Hi Nikki,
I like the way you always manage to document your days out with such amazing pictures and text.
I also wonder at the ingenuity and imagination of the home owners, who manage to make even the smallest space so full of colour and wildlife friendly. The bee shots in particular are fantastic 🙂
Thanks for sharing and enjoy your weekend, the weather here is set to be dry and sunny 🙂
Yvonne
xx
Kelly
Gorgeous photos, as always… with the added bonus of that delicious looking cake!!
Barbara Lofgren
Lovely pictures – and lovely gardens.
Anca
The garden looks amazing and so does that cake!
Lady Fi
What a stunning garden with lovely views. The cake doesn’t look bad either! 🙂
Jo
A wonderful garden, and the tea and cakes are always tempting, as well as plants to take home.
Jayne
Utterly beautiful, and behind the casual informality and appearance is an immense amount of work. Thank you for a lovely glimpse into your visit. Once upon a time I had fanciful aspirations of Bag End looking something like that. These days I don’t, and it doesn’t ☹️
Mike@Bitaboutbritain
Wonderful. Some people have that special skill to create in the garden. Loved your photos too.
CherryPie
The garden looks delightful and the coffee cake looks delicious 🙂
Ageeth Mooij
Love it!
jeanie
Stunning photos, Nikki, and just what I wanted to see on this gloomy day. Most of our gardens here are on their tail-end, fading or even dying blooms. They are beautiful in their way, but sorely lacking in the splash of color that these summer ones offer. So seeing one in full glory of summer is just the right antidote.
And by the way, thanks for popping by! I always love your visits and comments!
Lauren
You have taken such beautiful photos! The flowers look so pretty! Thank you for sharing xx
soma @ whimsandfancies.com
stunning garden. I would love to visit it one day in person. Thank you so much for sharing your photos with us, they are so beautiful! I would never leave that tea/coffee shop 🙂
-Soma
jessicabookworm
How wonderful to see so many bees and butterflies 🙂
chickenruby
I keep meaning to get involved with the open garden scheme, but never seem to have enough time when i visit the uk
Ann Coleman
Those gardens look just beautiful!
Felicity Grace Terry
Thank you for yet another visit to a beautiful garden. There’s seems to be something to see everywhere you look, all those glorious flowers, the rockeries, the ponds, a cat … and cake, it seems you had a wonderful visit.
Margaret Griffin
Hi, I can see this garden has given pleasure to many, many people. It is delightful.