City gardens event to celebrate 35th birthday in style

The Avenues Open Garden event will take place over two consecutive Sundays from July 3 and is expected to attract hundreds of people to the four main streets on the north side of Princes Avenue – Marlborough Avenue, Westbourne Avenue, Park Avenue and Victoria Avenue.

More than 50 gardens will be open to the public, from the organic to the traditional and the international, while even the local allotments will be open.

There will also be arts and crafts, live music, plant sales and refreshments.

Entrance programmes cost £3 and grant admission to all participating gardens over both weekends.

They can be bought from any house displaying an open gardens poster or from local retailers.

Proceeds will go to local charities including Dove House Hospice, which has been the main beneficiary in recent years.

The fundraising co-ordinator at Dove House, Karinda Jones, said: “The Avenues Open Gardens is a fantastic event which has raised more than £30,000 for the hospice in the last 10 years alone.

“We would really encourage people to go along and have a look around at the gardens – it’s always a great day out for the whole family and can be really inspiring too.”

The Avenues lie in a conservation area which also includes Pearson Park, and its residents’ association is going to great lengths to preserve its character.

Unlike in other parts of the city, householders need planning permission to replace windows and driveways, and a consultation is under way over proposals to add eight more directions, covering doors and porches, chimneys, roofs, gutter blocks and gutters, fascia boards and barge boards.

The Avenues and Pearson Park Residents Association wrote an “extraordinary newsletter” to residents this week to allay fears that failure to follow the guidelines would be a criminal offence.