Did someone say jungle garden?!

If you have been following us for a little while now you’ll know that we loveee any green space that we can find in the city. Last weekend Alex and his dad visited a National Garden Scheme open garden in Monton - a stone’s throw from Manchester City Centre.

The garden in question belongs to Tracy and Tony, a couple that have been working on their garden for over 15 years. The house was derelict when they bought it and the garden majorly overgrown. When they stripped it back they found two posts, unearthing the remains of a tennis court. What they have transformed it into is incredible - every corner of the garden appears carefully thought out, with the likes of a pond, a moon arch and even a chicken coop! In addition, the canopy of leaves overhead has grown to be genuinely humungous. See Alex for scale (5’8 at a push) standing upright underneath this huge leaf!

Tony’s special interest is bamboo, and this is evident in the towering patches of bamboo throughout the garden. Many species of bamboo can be very invasive, and Tony and Tracy are clearly experts in their field, as it is very challenging to find the correct plants that work well together and can support each other's growth!

The National Garden Scheme offers a host of fun days out and open gardens. Their work is invested in the mental and physical benefit to people’s health that being out in the open provides, and their charity work has contributed thousands to a variety of causes. For example, ‘Horatio’s Garden’ scheme is a project that opens gardens in NHS spinal injury centres for patients and family members struggling.

You can check out the open garden that Alex visited on their instagram page: @monton_gardens.

And you can find out the dates for more open gardens on the National Garden Scheme website, just click here!

Some gardens, like this one, may only open a few days a year. So make sure you check in advance before visiting. Let us know if you do visit any - we would love to see the incredible plants you discover!