The Bishop’s Palace has announced full details of its third English Country Garden Festival which will take place from Friday 9th – Sunday 11th June. 10am-5pm.
This year the Festival will be officially opened by celebrity gardener Matthew Biggs, who is well known for his appearances as a panellist on BBC Gardener’s Question time. He has also presented numerous television programmes, notably Channel 4’s ‘Garden Club’, stepped behind the camera to direct Meridian Television’s popular gardening series ‘Grass Roots’ and worked as Horticultural Consultant for a garden design series on Channel 5. Matthew will be giving a talk at 11:30 on Friday 9th entitled “Lessons from Great Gardeners”.
Each day of the Garden Festival, horticultural tours of the Gardens will take place at various times, and there will be a Gardener’s S.O.S with experts on hand to answer tricky gardening dilemmas.
At 2:30pm on Friday, Anne Swithinbank, a regular panellist for Gardener’s Question Time will give a talk called “My Life with Plants”.
Throughout the weekend, visitors can enjoy the festival atmosphere on the South Lawn, including a range of stalls including nurseries, and garden-themed crafts and gifts, BBQ food and live music.
On Saturday 10th Tamsin Westthorpe, former Editor of The Country Garden and Director of Stockton Bury Gardens will give a talk on “Summer in the Country Garden”. At 2pm, there will be an “English Country Ceilidh” on the South Lawn with LIVE music from The Somerset Levellers, followed at 2:30pm by a talk from Alan Power, the Garden and Estate Manager at Stourhead, who will be speaking in the afternoon about the Estate and its Management.
On Sunday 11th June the Palace will host a performance by bearded Bristolian group ‘The Longest Johns’ who were recently seen on BBC 2’s ‘The Choir’ with Gareth Malone. Visitors will be entertained by their fabulously rough and ready sea shanties and traditional songs of the South West from the stage on the South Lawn.
Talks on the Sunday will feature BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Jane Moore from Bath Priory Gardens at 11:30, and the talks will conclude at 2:30pm with Cleve West, the stellar garden designer, and a talk called “From Spuds to Chelsea”. Cleve has been awarded the prestigious ‘Best Show Garden’ at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show on multiple occasions, so is sure to have some top tips for keen gardeners!
Tickets are £6.99 in advance and £7.99 on the door (Concessions £5.90 and £6.90), include admission to the whole site, and are available from the Palace Shop, by telephone on 01749 988 111 or on www.bishopspalace.org.uk.