Sunday 11 June was the 25th year that the Park Estate in Nottingham (a private housing estate which in a previous life was the deer park for Nottingham Castle) have put on their Park Garden Trail. Residents in the estate open up some of their gardens to visitors with the fee of £7.50 going towards local charities. The event is held every two years (COVID notwithstanding) and it’s one of those things that I was vaguely aware happened but had never attended before, so I decided on a whim to do it this year, buying my ticket online the night before.
There were 24 properties involved this year and I only managed a handful because the weather at 27C was just too much for me to handle. It was an incredibly busy event with sometimes long queues outside the houses and the Park Estate is hilly even by Nottingham’s usual hilly standards. That said it was very well organised and there were food stalls and music events occurring throughout the estate.
The photo above is of 21 Park Valley’s garden. I quite liked this because you had to peer over the wall and look down to see it – it’s designed as a tribute to sustainability using reused oil drums and discarded wooden pallets and those pretty purple grow lights to compensate for the lack of sunlight reaching the plants down there.
The photos below are of 25 Park Valley which is one of the new houses on the trail. The terrace garden has had a recent refurbishment juxtaposing the modern with a hint of a traditional Victorian garden.
This garden, as seen from the road below, was apparently a lockdown project belonging to the 1820s Regency house above. It’s an unusual space and looks quite tricky to deal with but I love the way the steps snake from the top down.
This final house is on Tattershall Drive and is one of the Park’s Watson Fothergill houses. It was a nicely done space though it had quite a narrow route down to the garden that was tricky to navigate with so many people. The focus here was very much on biodiversity and attracting wildlife.
It’s a lovely event and if it hadn’t been quite as furiously hot I’d have certainly stayed longer and gone to visit some of the musical performances. The next event will be in June 2025.
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