The garden has a team of dedicated volunteers who ensure that it remains a tranquil, inspirational space all year round.

There are already signs of spring flowers, with bulbs starting to shoot and shrubs beginning to produce buds, promising a wealth of colour in a few weeks’ time.

The garden volunteers − a friendly bunch comprising helpers with all levels of garden knowledge and experience − meet every Friday morning between 10 am and 1 pm.

Absolute beginners, keen enthusiasts and even Alan Titchmarsh are all welcome. The ground is warming up and there are lots of jobs to be doing for willing helpers − there is no commitment to be there for every session.

The garden is open every day except when hired out for private events. Details of hire charges for the garden or any of the Bircham Centre’s event rooms are available HERE.

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Visitors can stroll through the picturesque Victorian kitchen garden with its array of vegetables, herbaceous borders and cut flowers, followed by the greenhouse, filled with exotic and seasonal plants, then wander though the woods to the Georgian pleasure gardens where refreshments will be served in the orangery.

All entrance money will be donated to NGS selected charities, and proceeds from the refreshments will be split 50/50 between the East Anglian Air Ambulance and YANA charities. There will also be a large plant sale.

The gardens will be open from 10 am – 4 pm. Admission: adults £6, children free, well-behaved dogs on leads welcome.

Parking available in the Christmas tree shop carpark off the B1145, between Cawston & Reepham.

For any enquiries, contact Tom Barwick 07717 575965 or email.

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Barbecue on Swannington village common. Photo: Sheila Foster-Hancock

For this 10th edition of the biennial Swannington in Bloom, 11 gardens –Swannington Manor, Manor Farmhouse, Honeysuckle Cottage, Swannington Hall, Wolvercott, Swan Cottage, Rushton Meadows, Heath Farmhouse, Upgate Cottage, The Martins and Windsfield House – will be open to explore, alongside classic car displays, including Triumph Stags, Morgans and a Lotus Elan.

Farm butchery Swannington Farm to Fork will be serving up a barbecue on the village common, with cream teas in the garden at Swannington Manor and light lunches available in St Margaret’s church.

Other refreshments on offer include teas from the Potting Shed at Upgate and Pimm’s by the pond at Rushton Meadows.

This year’s event is once again raising funds to maintain the village play area, which has recently received a new accessible roundabout thanks to a grant from Biffa Award, and the village’s 13th-century church.

Laura Marfell-Williams, chair of this year’s organising committee, said: “Since the first event in 2005, we estimate that we’ve raised over £50,000 through this event and those funds have been crucial in keeping both our village play area and church open and functional.

“We love having the opportunity to welcome visitors to our lovely corner of the county and we really appreciate their support.”

The gardens will be open from 11 am – 5 pm on Sunday 30 June. Dogs are welcome but must be kept on leads at all times.

Tickets cost £7.50 per person (accompanied under 16s free), available in advance HERE, along with further information about the gardens opening.

Tickets (cash only) will also be available on the day at the main car park at the Romantic Garden Nursery, The Street, Swannington NR9 5NW.

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The garden centre on the corner of the B1145 and A1067 marked the anniversary with a party on Sunday 11 June.

During the event, the Underwoods were presented with a stained glass panel to display in their garden, commissioned by Bawdeswell Garden Centre and designed and made by Julie Kirkham (pictured in the middle) from Alby Stained Glass, which has a shop and workshop in the garden centre’s Bluebell Square.

Read the news release HERE.

Read the EDP story HERE.

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Last year, the Papillon Project, which is based at the high school, “approached us with a view to opening for the National Garden Scheme,” said Julia Stafford Allen, NGS county organiser for Norfolk.

“We were so impressed with this wonderful community project and would like to support them by including them in our open gardens scheme in 2022.

“However, we felt that standing on its own it did not quite meet with the expectations of the National Garden Scheme visitor.

“An option would be if the project could open alongside another garden, or a collection of small gardens centred in Reepham.”

She noted that Reepham High School has excellent parking facilities and would be a perfect venue for providing teas.

“It would be a worthwhile and fun incentive over the next year for the children to get their allotment ready for opening for the scheme,” said Ms Stafford Allen.

“It would also bring further awareness of the importance of school allotments, an opportunity for gardeners to share their garden, as well as raising much need funds for our beneficiaries.”

If you are interested in opening your garden, please contact Julia Stafford Allen 07778 169775 or email

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An atmospheric short film by Piers Warren, filmed on Monday 25 January 2021.

To watch, click HERE

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Fritha Waters of Reepham understands the importance of lovely gardens at the best of times, but believes they have become even more critical during lockdown.

Interest in gardening has seen a significant rise during the Covid-19 pandemic: people have been looking at their gardens with new eyes and noticing where change is needed, she said.

In addition, gardening has played an important role in maintaining physical and mental health and well-being during the months of limited contact with the outside world.

Ms Waters’ latest venture aims to enhance the feel-good factor of gardens and bring new life to tired spaces without the cost of a complete redesign.

Her Feature Flower Beds are a set of garden concepts that have a theme and a general design template, but which can be adapted and adjusted to suit many different garden sizes, shapes and types.

The concepts focus on planting rather than hard landscaping, and are both affordable and flexible.

Ms Waters explained the idea behind Feature Flower Beds: “It’s a bit like a feature wall in a house.

“It brings colour, pattern and interest to the garden – it’s the focus of the space, using shrubs, climbers and flowers to make the garden come alive.”

She has started with four Feature Flower Bed concepts, which she has just launched on her new website: the Fairytale Garden, the Sweetshop Garden, the Fire Garden and the Winter Garden.

Ms Waters offers a flexible service, which includes preparation and planting and a promise to keep an eye on the bed to ensure it develops as planned.

“I generally use small, affordable plants that take three to four years to get to their optimum size for the space, although I can plant larger specimens if customers have the budget for it,” she said.

“I provide a handbook to explain how to care for their new plants, but if they have any questions, I’m always happy to have a chat”.

Ms Waters understands the hesitation some gardeners feel about making drastic changes.

“We’ve all bought something for our gardens that seemed like a good idea at the time, but which simply didn’t work in the space,” she said.

“My Feature Flower Beds use plants that work together to create something that isn’t just stunning, but also has balance and resilience.”

Ms Waters has been designing, creating and maintaining gardens for customers for the past five years.

She has gained qualifications through the Royal Horticultural Society, Peter Beales Roses and Broadacre Gardens, giving her a mix of garden design and plant care skills.

Fritha Waters Gardening

Tel: 01603 873007/07724 551191

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The shop is now taking orders for seasonal flower bouquets, funeral and sympathy flowers, and houseplants, as well as bedding and perennial plants for the garden.

This will begin as a Thursday-Saturday service – a small step towards reopening the business and a way of supporting those who are still self-isolating or not able to use public transport at present, said proprietor Karen Wheeler.

Contactless payment can be arranged at the time of ordering.

Visit the Facebook or Instagram page for an update of what is available each week and contact by mobile phone 07919 282954 or email.

Further information is available on the website.

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Next time you’re in Reepham and have a few minutes to spare, venture into the garden behind the Bircham Centre (access via Pudding Pie Lane or Back Street). It is a little oasis of calm away from the bustle that is Reepham – and the stresses and strains of everyday life.

As part of the Bircham Centre’s centenary celebrations the garden is being transformed by a team of volunteers, led by Tom Martin from Eves Hill Veg Co.

Over the past year the volunteers, who come to the garden each Monday from 9.30 am –1 pm, have transformed this space; many have done so while completing a Level 1 Award in gardening with Tom.

If you come on a Monday morning, say hello to the volunteers, who will show you around. There are often flowers and produce to take away as well.

Reepham Lions is also supporting Eves Hill Veg Co’s horticulture apprenticeship scheme, which operates at the market garden in Booton. This is done through Eves Hill’s 100 Club apprenticeship fundraiser.

The scheme is now in its second year and the first apprentice, Izzy Filby, is now assistant gardener at Thornage Hall – a great achievement and testament to the work being done by the community company and the apprentices engaged in the scheme.

If you would like to support the Bircham Centre garden with a donation of plants or through volunteering, contact Tom Martin by email.

For details of Eves Hill Veg Co’s 100 Club apprenticeship fundraiser, click HERE.

For more information about Reepham Lions and their work supporting local good causes, please visit the website, email or come along to one of our meetings, which are held on the first Tuesday of the month in Reepham Methodist Church, Station Road, Reepham, at 7.30 pm.

Liz Howes

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Tea and cakes (all hand-made by Salle villagers) will be served in the orangery, with the proceeds from these going to Salle Parish.

Salle Park is a traditional arable farming estate of around 5,500 acres. It is now owned by Sir John White and has been in the White family for more than 100 years.

Beyond the award-winning farm, other areas of the estate are tended to by gamekeepers, foresters, house staff and gardeners.

The estate has opened the gardens to support various charities for more than a decade, previously for the National Garden Scheme and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution charities. (When the gardens were opened three years ago for the NGS, the tea and cake money was spent on a play area for the village green.)

Salle Hall (pictured below) was built in 1763. The gardens consist of around six acres maintained by 2½ gardeners and two volunteers. Around the house there are Georgian-style pleasure gardens, formal lawns and yew topiary, rose gardens, specimen trees, shrubs and wildflower meadows.

But the real gem is the traditional walled garden (pictured above) on 1.4 acres, which was built around 1780-1790. At the time, the bricks alone are documented to have cost £500 (equivalent to £1-2 million in today’s money).

Only 2,000 walled gardens were ever built in the UK and sadly many are now either derelict or used as pheasant pens or tennis courts.

Over the past decade the gardens at Salle Park have been transformed from gradual decline into one of the few productive and historically accurate planted Victorian walled gardens in the country.

This process was started in 2005 by Joe Whitehead (now head gardener at Burghley House) and the still ever-present assistant gardener Steve Bowes (a former local police officer and an expert vegetable grower).

Tom Barwick re-joined the Salle team two years ago as head gardener to continue developing the gardens. The estate is also fortunate to have Isla Macleod as part of the team. Her enthusiasm and interest, especially in flowers, have helped to push the gardens to even greater heights.

The greenhouse was fully restored in 2010, and in 2016 the orangery underwent a major renovation and is now fully planted with exotic flora and regularly used for social functions.

Today the gardens team provides more than 30 varieties of fruits, 60 varieties of vegetables and many different types of flowers for the “Big House” and the estate.

All the produce is used to feed the team of farmers during harvest with hot meals delivered and served directly to the field by Clarissa and Hilary, the house staff, or preserved and used for the shoot dinners during winter.

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