YOU wait for an open garden to come along and suddenly two arrive at once...

Sunday is fun day if you like rooting around other people’s creations, getting ideas, having refreshments and, more importantly, meeting kindred spirits.

Covid-19 put a kibosh on garden openings from which organisers have now largely recovered and they are back with something of a bang, this weekend.

Passers-by will have noticed the Killpack creation of embryonic no-dig raised vegetable beds beside their Dairy Cottage home in Carisbrooke Road – close to the Cedar Hill mini-roundabout.

Isle of Wight County Press: Armadale will be open to the public.Armadale will be open to the public. (Image: Sue Dobbs.)

But those who haven’t been there before will not know what the sweet acre beyond contains.

Isle of Wight gardening top tips for this weekend

  • Check plants and water them daily if the soil is dry — especially newly planted trees and shrubs. To help save money, time AND water, it's well worth setting up an automated drip irrigation system.
  • Use blinds or apply shade paint to prevent the greenhouse from overheating. Remember to open vents and doors when it’s hot.
  • Using rainwater, if at all possible, continue to water your flowering rhododendrons, azaleas and citrus plants.
  • Continue to earth up potato plants as they develop.
  • Keep the compost of container potatoes moist, but take care not to overwater, as this compacts the soil, squeezing out the oxygen, and prevents the developing tubers from swelling.
  • Pinch-out side-shoots from tomato plants – except bush varieties. You can pot these up to create new tomato plants to fruit late in the season. Start to feed once the first truss sets fruit.

Isle of Wight County Press: Armadale will be open to the public.Armadale will be open to the public. (Image: Sue Dobbs.)

All photos show gardens in Seaview

Louisa Killpack explains: “It is a stream-side garden with herbaceous beds, a pergola of roses and fruit trees, a kitchen garden, and a watercress bed.

“There is an acre of woodland with a new wildlife pond, and an allotment with a series of new experimental no-dig vegetable beds.

“Delicious teas will be provided by the Friends of St Thomas of Canterbury School. A plant stall will be run by Bramley Plants. Admission from 1-5pm is by donation to the Alzheimer's Society.”

At t’other side of the Island, three jewels of Seaview open under the National Garden Scheme.

Susan Dobbs appealed for my help in promoting the event after she felt more than a little let down by the NGS.

“We are very disappointed to be linked to Hampshire, with only a couple of pages in the back of their booklet and no Island advertisements.”

Isle of Wight County Press: Armadale will be open to the public.Armadale will be open to the public. (Image: Sue Dobbs.)

Susan created the garden at Salterns Cottage which was bought in 1927 by her husband Noel’s great grandmother, Florence, the wife of Dracula author Bram Stoker.

It most ably illustrates that size is definitely not important in the garden department.

Nearby Red Cross Cottage shows off the matured results of the renowned garden designer Jane Brown.

Armadale in Ryde Road is a story of a garden being allowed to do what it wants - and there is the added bonus there of teas, rose and Pimm’s in aid of Mountbatten.