Barnsley Village Garden Festival is returning in May this year after a two-year break. I’ve been out visit to Layston, one of the gardens that will be open.
Daffodils in every shade of yellow, the first slender tulips and drifts of primroses, Layston in Barnsley has everything I love about a spring garden.
It’s been created over the past five years by Michael and Elizabeth Gledhill with the help of gardener Mark Bayston, keeping the inherited layout of lawn and borders but overlaying it with new planting.
In spring, this means masses of narcissi threaded through the borders and under the mature trees, including an ancient walnut, a copper beach and a laburnum. Many are the classic yellow daffodils but there are also more unusual doubles and the striking N. ‘Actaea’.
The colour scheme is pastel – think lemon, pale blue and cream – with a mass planting of Anemone blanda in one corner, and creamy tulips, such as ‘Exotic Emperor’, picking up the shades in nearby variegated lunaria (honesty).
More vibrant is a grouping of forsythia and Kerria japonica, their golden flowers underplanted with yellow narcissi.
The decision to keep the large lawn rather than create more flower borders was deliberate, Elizabeth told me.
“It’s wonderful for our six grandchildren and I think that’s important, no matter how keen you are on your garden. They love coming here because there’s space.”
Of course, the early spring stars will have faded by the time the garden opens for the Barnsley Village Garden Festival but there is plenty for later, including roses, honeysuckle, paeones and Exchorda x macrantha ‘The Bride’, while the growing season will be underway in the greenhouse and vegetable garden.
Michael’s sizeable collection of potted hostas, well over 100, will also be out – they were just poking their noses above ground when I visited.
And that’s what I really love about spring gardens, the sense of promise.
What’s on at Barnsley Village Garden Festival
The festival, which is being held on Saturday May 14, 2022, was started by the late Rosemary Verey, a respected garden designer who worked on several gardens in the village.
Her own garden, now Barnsley House Hotel, is famous for its potager and laburnum arch. Usually open only to guests it will be open to the public over the festival. (Read about my last visit to Barnsley House here.)
Other gardens that will open include Barnsley Park, The Dower House, Oxwold House, and Barnsley Arboretum. In addition there will be craft, produce and plant stalls, music, Morris Dancers, teas and a BBQ.
The festival runs from 10.30-5pm. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the website.
Enjoyed this? You can read about more of my garden visits here.
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