Plans announced for 2010 Open Garden Squares Weekend

Zander Court Clubhouse

Kilmorey Mausoleum

Lavender Pond

Roots & Shoots

London Parks & Gardens Trust have announced that the 2010 Open Garden Squares Weekend will take place on the weekend of June 12 & 13, 2010.

The hotly anticipated diary date will be sponsored for the third year by Transport for London (TfL). Visitors will have the rare opportunity to peer behind the walls of London's private community gardens and squares. Ranging from the historically memorable to the small and quirky; from the contemporary and eco-friendly to renowned roof gardens, cemeteries and working allotments.

Gardens from many areas of London will be participating for the first time. These include:

• Carnegie Library (Herne Hill, South London) - a wildlife-friendly garden at the rear of an Arts-and-Crafts listed building. Open on the Saturday, there will be refreshments, garden trails and children's activities.
• Zander Court Club House (Bethnal Green) - an informal gated garden attached to community centre, looked after by the residents. Open on the Sunday, there will be refreshments and a plant sale (see illustration)
• Brompton Cemetery  - the most central and one of the best preserved of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries created in the countryside outside London between 1830 and 1841. There are more than 60 species of trees and over the weekend, there will be guided tours and a wild flower walk.
• Hillview near Kings Cross - a Victorian housing estate that has been transformed into a delightful green haven. Tea and cakes will be offered during the weekend.
• Kilmorey Mausoleum Wildlife Garden (Richmond-upon-Thames) - a wildlife garden surrounding the Egyptian-style mausoleum. Open on the Saturday afternoon, they will be serving Eco teas and hosting a recycling demonstration.
• Windrush Square (Brixton) - a new, public open space in the heart of Lambeth. They will be celebrating urban gardening and agriculture in the area.
• British Medical Association Council Garden near Euston - an elegant town garden designed by Lutyens, there will be guided talks as well as refreshments and produce for sale on the Saturday.
• Emanuel School Grounds (Wandsworth) - 12 acres of gardens and grounds not normally open to the public.
• John Betts House (Hammersmith) - an award-winning communal garden for residents of almshouses. Refreshments and plant will be for sale on the Saturday.
• Lavender Pond and Nature Park across the river from Canary Wharf - one of the oldest urban nature reserves in the country, created on the site of an old timber pond (see illustration).
• Roots and Shoots (Lambeth) - a vocational training centre for young people with a famous half-acre wildlife garden. Open on the Sunday, they will be selling refreshments and plants as well as hosting children's activities and storytelling (see illustration).
• October Gallery (Bloomsbury) - a garden courtyard with fruit trees, shrubs and flowers.
• St Lawrence's Church in Canons Park - a Grade I listed church with a baroque interior, world-famous composer Handel is said to have played the organ here. Close to other attractions in Canons Park involved in the weekend, including the 18th-century house (now North London Collegiate School) and the walled George V Memorial Garden

Also open over the weekend will be many of the much loved and popular gardens such as the Middle Temple and Inner Temple; Park Square and Park Crescent; Branch Hill Allotments; Culpeper Community Garden; St Mary's Secret Garden; The Community Garden at the Tate Modern; Bonnington Square; Eaton Square; MaRoCoCo Garden at Rococo Chocolates; Kensington Roof Gardens; Arundel and Elgin Garden in Notting Hill; St Michael's Convent and, by appointment, HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

Getting Around Over The Weekend

Open Gardens Squares Weekend is encouraging visitors to cycle and walk between the gardens. On the Sunday, there will be the popular guided bike ride starting in Covent Garden and throughout the weekend, TfL will be hosting guided walks. For those who want to discover the gardens independently, suggestions of the best routes over the weekend can be found by visiting TfL's journey planner, www.tfl.gov.uk/walkingjourneyplanner. Two podcasts and self-guided bike rides can be downloaded from www.londongardenstrust.org/guides, while www.opensquares.org provides all the latest news and updates.

Ticket Details

One ticket allows entry to all venues over the entire weekend. Ticket prices will be £7.50 in advance and £9 if bought during the weekend.

The closing date for advance bookings is Monday 7 June 2010. Tickets can be ordered from 8 February:

• From the Ticket hotline on 020 8347 3230 (Mon - Fri 9.00am - 6.00pm)
• Online from www.capitalgardens.co.uk
• By post: send a stamped addressed envelope to Capital Gardens, 1 Townsend Yard, Highgate Village, London, N6 5JF. Cheques should be made payable to Capital Gardens Ltd. For each ticket booked in advance, Capital Gardens will give a £5 discount voucher to spend at any Capital Gardens garden centre.
• In person from the Britain and London Visitor Centre at 1 Lower Regent Street, SW1Y 4XT (where there will be the opportunity to win a Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper), and from all Capital Gardens Centres. · During the weekend tickets are available from the Britain and London Visitor Centre and selected participating gardens.

Christopher Lloyd Exhibition at the Garden Museum

The Garden Museum presents its new exhibition, the first major retrospective on the life and work of Christopher Lloyd. Opening on April 1 2010, Christopher Lloyd: A Life at Great Dixter will present a unique perspective on the life and work of one of the great characters of 20th century gardening. The exhibition runs until 12 September.

Born in 1921 Christopher Lloyd lived and worked for most of his life at his family home, Great Dixter. It was at Dixter that he, through his adventurous changes and characteristic use of colour, created one of the world’s best loved gardens. His work in the gardens informed and inspired his distinctive writing, published in national press and numerous books, which made him a household name and the most engaging plantsman of his generation.

This new exhibition will bring together personal objects from Great Dixter, recollections and stories from Christopher’s friends and colleagues, examples of his writing and stunning images of his garden to piece together a picture of the life behind the garden. It will be the first time that this selection of Christopher’s possessions, and those of his family, have been on public display: including his gardening galloshes and his Glyndebourne shoes, designs by Lutyens and photographs from the family’s private darkroom. From his childhood at Dixter, through his education as a gardener and the early days of the nursery business, to his later life and career, visitors will be able to examine the links between Christopher Lloyd’s public persona and his private interests and enthusiasms, from his annual pilgrimages to Scotland and Glyndebourne to cooking, contemporary design, and mischievous correspondence.

Christopher Lloyd: A Life at Great Dixter will be the second in a series of retrospectives of great modern garden makers in the Garden Museum’s new exhibition gallery. Like 2008’s retrospective on Beth Chatto, the exhibition will endeavour to place Christopher Lloyd’s work in context; asking why he was such an influential figure in 20th century gardening and whether his posthumous reputation will continue to endure. The exhibition coincides with the centenary of Nathaniel Lloyd, Christopher’s father, founding the gardens at Dixter and an appeal by The Great Dixter Trust to raise the remaining £1.1 million needed to complete Christopher Lloyd’s vision for the estate.

Christopher Lloyd: A Life at Great Dixter will be accompanied by a series of events at the Garden Museum. Further details at http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/