\n The Press went along to the inaugural Acomb Open Gardens today (Sunday, May 31) and spoke to participants who were taking a break from showing ticket holders around their green spaces, as well as swapping tips.\n<\/p>\n
\n The four-hour event sold all of its tickets with the aim of encouraging locals to experiment with their own gardens and showcase a variety of “real gardens, weeds included.”\n<\/p>\n
\n There was an abundance of wildlife in Katherine Blaker’s front garden (Image: Kevin Glenton)\n<\/p>\n
\n There were seed swaps, plants sales and proceeds from ticket sales are to be donated to Greater Acomb Community Forum and Acomb Explore Library.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Fourm said this would support its volunteers’ planting work on Front Street in Acomb.\n<\/p>\n
\n Organiser Katie Scott said the gardeners are very generous, and they want to share stories, as well as plants (Image: Kevin Glenton)\n<\/p>\n
\n Organiser and participant Katie Scott said: “This is a group of very plant-focussed obsessives.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Gardeners are very generous and they want to share stories, as well as plants.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s not about “perfect” gardens – I keep my dandelions for guinea pig food.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It’s an ongoing journey with nature.”\n<\/p>\n
\n “The thing that we all have in common is that we all love Acomb.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Katie said her cottage garden places its emphasis on perennials and roses.\n<\/p>\n
\n Katie Scott’s cottage garden emphasises perennials and roses (Image: Kevin Glenton)\n<\/p>\n
\n Sam Taylor and Tanya Stewart-Taylor have been tending their garden for 40 years and are in there “all the time”, with Sam adding that it acts as an “escape from reality.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The space is estimated at 25 feet wide by 50 feet long (excluding the roof garden) and has space for sculptures, a biodome, a lodge, a woodland area and a potting area which is home to five frogs – Tanya said a pot per year has been added and the couple always find an excuse to add to the collection.\n<\/p>\n
\n Steps leading to the woodland area of a garden roughly 25 feet wide by 50 feet across (Image: Kevin Glenton)\n<\/p>\n
\n Katherine Blaker was hosting her very own garden party along with showing off her front garden, offering refreshments and cake, with those specific proceeds going to support non-profit Grow to Know, a gardening and social enterprise set up by former professional footballer Taysham Hayden-Smith.\n<\/p>\n
\n Katherine Blaker replaced her front lawn was replaced with her own design for a gravel garden and deep, drought-tolerant planting (Image: Kevin Glenton)\n<\/p>\n
\n Katherine replaced her front lawn with her own design and based it on a winter structure – a gravel garden with deep, drought-tolerant planting.\n<\/p>\n
\n 13 participants made up the sold-out Acomb Gardens 2026 over the same number of streets across the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n Katie said proceeds after the event will be donated to the Greater Acomb Community Forum, with a portion given to Acomb Explore Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Press went along to the inaugural Acomb Open Gardens today (Sunday, May 31) and spoke to participants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-614079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}