Author: DeniseW

We have an amazing lineup of local musicians for you to enjoy as you soak up the beauty of the gardens. You can find out where your favourite musicians are performing in your copy of the program. Performance times will be released via social media, the website and our new app a day or two before the event, and will be displayed at the information hub on Histon Green. Programmes go on sale very soon, so look out for the announcement.

Mythopoeic are Katherine Galvin and Jay Monk, young folk singer songwriter multi-instrumentalists. They play mainly their own songs with some music from the tradition and “folked up” interpretations of more contemporary material.

Clare House Clarinets are Sara Morrison, Trish Gallagher, Steph Baughen, Katie Sylvester and Karen Hills. They play classical, ragtime, jazz/swing and folk music.

Cambridge Ten Sing are an informal YMCA-based performing arts group for young people aged 11-18.

Cambridge Sinfonietta is a friendly amateur orchestra based in Cambridge. They mainly play works drawn from the classical repertoire.

The Impingtones are a friendly not-for-profit community choir in Histon and Impington near Cambridge, running since 2016

Histon Brass are an enthusiastic group of brass players with local connection! They play a wide variety of music ranging from baroque through classical to traditional marches and contemporary music.

Gentle Jazz are Rob and Anita, a guitar and vocal duo, who will perform jazz standards from across the years.

B1049’s is a three-piece band playing acoustic covers from a wide variety of genres.

Choir 2000 are a Histon and Impington community choir, formed as a “choir for the millennium” and still going strong.

All performances are, of course, subject to last minute changes, such as the covid situation.

Photo © Brian Ing

As natural habitats in the wider countryside shrink and become fragmented, gardens have an increasingly important role to play in sustaining wildlife. Even in cities, they can offer a patchwork of green spaces, providing a link between parks and countryside. Many of us try to garden with wildlife in mind, whether by planting native trees, installing a pond, choosing flowers that are appreciated by pollinating insects or simply leaving a patch of grass unmown. The gardens opening this year are no exception.

Tucked away behind the bustle of the High Street, you’ll find an oasis of calm, with ancient trees and a pond that is home to newts. If you look carefully, you’ll see the boxes used by the resident bat population. Down the road on School Hill and Park Lane, you’ll find several family gardens with mature trees, ponds and insect-friendly flower displays, along with acres of spectacular woodland and a moat. You can also find out about the community project to buy and maintain Abbey Fields.

Heading south, you could stop by our beautiful community orchard, on your way to Villa Road and Cambridge Road, where you’ll find a wealth ponds, old orchards, a woodland walk, and even a hibernaculum. In McFarlane Close, you can find out about the work of Shepreth Hedgehog Hospital, and what you can do to help support our local hedgehog population. Carry on walking to Burgoynes Road and Percheron Close and you’ll find yet more ponds to enjoy, ancient beech trees and a tranquil wild area to relax in. You’ll also find plenty of gardeners who are helping the planet by growing their own food, with veg plots, fruit gardens, beehives and chickens.

In short, you can expect plenty of beautiful wild spaces to explore, gorgeous flowers and lots of inspiration for accommodating the needs of wildlife into your own garden.

Histon and Impington Open Gardens, Sunday 12th June 2022

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Photo ©Brian Ing

BOOK NOW to find out about the fascinating history of two of this year’s gardens.

“A potted history of two historic houses in Histon and their recent renovations”, Monday 25th April 7:30pm, Baptist Church.

Can’t wait until June? Get ready for Open Gardens now, by finding out about the intriguing history of Histon Manor and The Gables. Jo Roach and Katherine Mann will talk about the colourful histories of former residents, how the architecture of the houses evolved over the years, and the discoveries that they have made during renovations.

Booking is essential – click here to find out more and book your place.

During Open Gardens, you’ll be able to admire the architecture of these two houses that have dominated village life for hundreds of years. Step behind the walls of an oasis on our high street, see the former animal houses of the private zoo, and puzzle over the history of the moat. But many of our other gardens have fascinating stories to tell, too. On School Hill, you’ll find the garden originally laid out by the village doctors, around the corner from a garden built on the old school playing fields. Several gardens have connections with the Chivers factory, from the Baptist Church manse, built on land donated by the Chivers family, to a worker’s cottage and the home of the foreman. All of which makes for fascinating stories and gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian architecture, set off by glorious gardens.

Following nominations from this year’s garden owners and a vote by the committee, we are very pleased to announce the charities that we will be supporting for Open Gardens 2022. A special thank you to the charity representatives, who came to our recent garden owners’ tea party and information session. They gave wonderful talks about the work of their charities, and the impact that our donations will have.

Histon and Impington Feast is well known to local residents, organising the Feast Week in July and raising money for many local charities in the process. This year, they’ll be joining forces with HI Friends for Jubilee weekend and Open Gardens for a whole Summer Festival of events! Look out for the Flower Festival in St Andrews, the Feast Market and concerts on The Green. http://hisimp.com/feast/

East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices care for, and support the families of, children and young people with life-threatening conditions. Our donation will go towards services provided through their Milton Hospice, including short break care, wellbeing and physical therapies, counselling, end of life and bereavement support https://www.each.org.uk/.

Shepreth Hedgehog Hospital care for abandoned hoglets, as well as hedgehogs injured by cars, dogs and garden machinery or sick from parasite infestations. Hedgehogs are classified as “vulnerable to extinction” in the UK, and the charity also works to educate the local community about the simple ways that we can all help. Our donation will help with their day-to-day running costs and enable them to buy more incubators, to keep their patients warm, dramatically improving their chance of recovering http://www.swccharity.org/.

HI Friends is a village charity that supports wellbeing, mobility, sport and recreation for our community. Their dedicated Wellbeing Team supports older people, those living with dementia, mental wellbeing, parental wellbeing and bereavement. As well as providing the Community Minibus and the Trishaw, they promote and develop a range of sporting and exercise activities for all ages. Our donation will support their dementia worker and their mental wellbeing work supporting young people in our village schools https://www.hifriends.org.uk/.

The more programmes (and teas and cakes) we sell, the more money we’ll raise for them, so make sure you tell your family, friends and colleagues! Look out for programme sales, on Histon Green and in local shops, in May.

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We are busy putting together the programme for H&I Open Gardens on Sunday 12th June and have ONE REMAINING SPACE for a sponsor. The price is £100 for a half page (A6 landscape) advert. We will also display it on our website, where it will stay until we start securing sponsors for the next event in 2024. Contact us NOW info@opengardens.org to secure this opportunity for your business.

H&I Open Gardens is a biennial village event, in which gardeners open their beautiful gardens for one day. Since the first event in 2007, we have raised over £43,000 for charities and many 1,000s of visitors have enjoyed the gardens. Over 700 programmes were sold in 2019, so this is great visibility for your business, and a wonderful way to support your local community.

A very happy year to you all. As the days get longer and we start to plan for the gardening year ahead, we would love your help preparing for the Open Gardens plant stall. This is a great fundraiser for our charities, and a wonderful source of new treasures for your garden. It’s especially great if you have a new garden and aren’t sure how to fill it, because you’ll find plants that thrive in your neighbours’ gardens, and at an affordable price. But to make it a success we will need your donations.

Early spring is a great time to divide clumps of perennials or herbs, which can start to get congested. You’ll invigorate the original clump, have new plants to add a few elsewhere in your garden, and hopefully have some left over to pot up for us. Or could you take cuttings from one of your favourite pelargoniums or fuschias? What about those pretty but slightly too prolific self-seeders that have popped up in the wrong place? Instead of throwing them on the compost heap, could you pot them up, to bring joy to another gardener? Or perhaps you could plant an extra packet of seeds or even buy an extra tray of plug plants, to grow on, ready to donate. Flowers, vegetable plants, herbs and shrubs are all very welcome, and we’ll let you know where and when to donate them nearer the time.

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Histon and Impington Open Gardens, Sunday 12th June 2022