This year’s Open Gardens event was again very successful despite the occasional threatening clouds. We had almost 700 people visit 32 lovely gardens, big and small, but all very nice in their own way.
A small team of people once again planned and organised it over the weekend of 16th & 17th May 2026. We felt the weekend had been once again a very social weekend. All of the visitors to the gardens enjoyed seeing how each gardener makes the most of the space available to them.
And of course one of the aims is to raise some money.
This year, the net profit was £4,400. This will be split 50/50 between St Mary’s Church, for its Roof Appeal, and The Wivenhoe Society.
As last year, WivSoc have advertised that they will be giving grants to Wivenhoe organisations which are raising funds towards a current project.
Open Gardens was started in 1987 by Len Horner, a former Chairman of The Wivenhoe Society and his wife, Anne, who was very involved with St Mary’s Church. Over the years, Open Gardens has raised a tremendous amount of money for St Mary’s Church and for many local causes.
Next year will be the 40th anniversary of Open Gardens. We have already decided that Open Gardens will take place over the weekend of 22nd / 23rd May, 2027.
A Garden Party is being held in August in the garden of Toad Hall to which all the Open Gardens gardeners are invited to celebrate the success of this year’s event.
Peter Hill, Chairman, Wivenhoe Open Gardens Team (tel: 01206 823073 Email: peter@toadhall2.co.uk)
