PEOPLE visiting open gardens in Barnard Castle this weekend can also enjoy Pimms, a tombola and plant and book stalls.
Organised by Annie Clouston, Bobbie Allen and Mike Way, 17 gardens along The Bank, Thorngate, The Demesnes and Newgate will be open on Sunday, between 2pm and 4.30pm.
Cash raised will be shared between the town’s Christmas lights fund and Teesdale and Weardale Search and Mountain Rescue Team.
Ms Clouston said: “People have volunteered their gardens because they love them and want to greet people into them to exchange ideas and have a sociable time.
“They are very varied, from small walled gardens to grander spaces, some have overcome challenges to conventional gardening.
“There will be two very different musical experiences as well as Rumold Border Morris Dancers to add interest to the afternoon.”
Former Bowes Museum curator Elizabeth Conran, at 31 Thorngate has one of the gardens. It was redesigned about 10 years ago so that it would require less maintenance.
She said: “It was getting a but jungly and I was not fit to do it.
“It took several weeks.
“We put in shrubs that would be easier to look after and we in-fill with annuals to make splashes of colour.
“There are some annuals and some perennials to get a mixture through the year.”
The garden is as attractive during the winter with viburnum, mahonia, winter jasmine and pyracantha.
