Mike Hill, our treasurer and show secretary, after an enforced absence in 2020 will once again open his Eltham Hill garden to the public on Sunday 13th of June 2021 as part of the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice Open Gardens Festival.

Pictures of previous open days can be seen by clicking here. Full details of the Festival, which takes place over two weekends of June in a host of gardens in Eltham, Greenwich, Charlton and Blackheath can be found here

There will be a plant sale and refreshments will also be available. Admission charges can be found on the Garden Festivals website and please note only cash payments can be accepted on the day.

Opening hours on June 13th will be from 2pm to 6pm.

The address is 118 Eltham Hill SE9 5EF and car parking is available on Eltham Hill which is also served by several bus routes, the nearest stop is Kingsground.

Help clean up this wonderful local resource that used to be the Greenwich borough environmental centre on Sunday 29th September between 10am and 3pm. 

Bring along your tools or borrow some if you need them and help restore this unique place of rural calm in the heart of our community. The entrance is directly opposite the entrance to Pippenhall allotments.

Tea and coffee will be available and bring a picnic and relax to the Celtic band.

77 Bexley Road, Eltham, SE9 2PE

Discover a garden that excites the senses. Spring and summer bring vibrant blooms filling the place with colour and perfume. Winding paths, grand trees, lakes, cascades and bridges provide a varied landscape to explore as well as quiet spots to stretch out a picnic blanket. Off the beaten track nature thrives in the 300 acres of parkland and woods that surround the garden

For details of the visit please see the May 2019 newsletter here. Image copyright The National Trust.

Mike and Rosie Hill after a year off in 2018 once again opened their Eltham Hill garden to the public on Sunday the 2nd of June 2019 as part of the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice Open Gardens Festival. The weather was mostly kind to the visitors and over 100 people attended raising in total £1000 for the hospice. A big thank you to Mike and Rosie and to all the visitors who were so generous.

Pictures of the open day can be seen by clicking here. Full details of the Festival which takes place over the first two weekends of June in over 45 gardens can be found here

Noted London based garden designer and author of 'Great Little Gardens' Anthony Noel will be sharing some of his extensive knowledge on the subject of garden design with us on the 18th October at the St. Mary's Community Centre in Eltham High Street. The talk will start at 7.30pm and there will be a small entrance charge of £3 which will include light refreshments afterwards. All are welcome to attend what should be a fascinating insight into how to make the best use of your outside space no matter how small it might be.

Here is how Anthony describes himself on his website:

Over the past 25 years, my work has taken me from the humblest beginnings in a Fulham back yard to designing gardens in America and Europe. Whilst nearer home: as a consultant at Renishaw Hall, home of the Sitwell family for nearly 400 years. My style is classical (whether ancient or modern) with a dash of theatre, and a number of commissions have come from the worlds of music, theatre The smallest outside space is a potential garden to me, be it a window sill, balcony, family garden or ancestral acres. With sensible, practical and artistic planning between client and designer, I believe that any garden can be a Great Little Garden, at home or abroad, and it needn’t take a king’s ransom to achieve!'

Venue details:

The early summer outing this year is to Wakehurst Place, a house and 500 acres of botanic gardens owned by the National Trust and managed by Kew Gardens located in the High Weald West Sussex.

It takes place on Wednesday June 6th.

For more information please contact us by clicking here

This is one of the National Trust's premier gardens in the south of England and is situated 5 miles south of Crawley.

The total cost including the coach fare and entry is £34 per person.

There is plenty to see and do and there is a cafe and plant sales area available to visitors.

If you would like to go please contact the scertary Richard Mattinson as soon as possible on 020 8859 8656 to reserve your place and get further details of departure and return times and pick up points.

The annual outing this year will be to the renowned Beth Chatto gardens near Colchester on Wednesday 8th June 2016. If you are interested in going please contact Richard Mattinson on 020 8859 8656 to check on availability and full travel details. The coach will depart from Eltham at 9.30am and return about 5pm.

The 2015 outing will be to the famous RHS Gardens at Wisley in Surrey. Since we last visited there have been many changes at Wisley including the opening of the new Glasshouse pictured above. Whatever your gardening interest there will be something for you at Wisley from model gardens, roses, perennial borders, allotments through to more specialist subjects like alpines and the trial fields. They also have a rather good plant centre if you find yourself inspired by the gardens!

There are several options to eat and drink at Wisley or you can bring a picnic should you prefer.

The cost including coach travel from Eltham is £15 per person. The first pick up point is Eltham High Street (Catholic church) at 9.30am, Westmount Road (Methodist church) 9.40am and Avery Hill Road at 9.45am. We plan to be back in Eltham for 5pm.

Picture above copyright Mark Boyce.

This years outing will be to Capel Manor Gardens, which has a wide range of attractions including:

• Japanese Garden (which seeks balance between the ‘in’ and ‘yo’ – the Japanese equivalent of the Chinese ‘yin’ and ‘yang’)

• The Queen Mother’s Garden

• Sunflower Street (Minimalist, Family, Rustic, Cottage, Victorian, Modern and Mediterranean Gardens designed by former students)

• National Gardening Centre (front and back domestic sized gardens to offer inspiration)

• The Australian Garden, 2011 Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner. In Association with the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

• Outdoor Classroom Garden

• Le Jardin De Vincent (inspired by Vincent van Gogh, a Chelsea Flower Show Silver Gilt Medal Winner in 2007) & the Recycled Garden

• Secured By Design (showing how beauty, nature and security can co-exist) & Family Friendly (aka the Upwardly Mobile Garden, a 2010 Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner)

• Growing Together In Faith Garden (looking at how the rose pervades Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism providing common ground and shared roots)

• Victorian Garden

• 17th Century Style Gardens & Well

• Koi Pond & Japanese Rock Garden (incorporating 175 tonnes of Macclesfield rock)

• Italianate Maze With Viewing Platform (designed and created by Adrian Fisher, the world’s most prolific maze designer)

• Woodland Walk

• The Walled Garden (producing fruit, vegetables and cut flowers for the Manor House and housing several plant collections)

• Scented Pelargonium House

• Display House (including a Cactus collection)

• Victorian Stables

• Amphitheatre (home to many of our open air theatre events)

• The Old Manor House Garden (phase 1 opened by Her Majesty the Queen in June 2010)

• No-Dig Vegetable Plot

• Which? Gardening Trial Gardens (looking for the best varieties for the amateur gardener)
• Terrace self service restaurant which serves drinks, snacks and hot and cold meals throughout the day

Cost per person is £18 which includes coach transport, entry to the garden and entry to the raffle. Coach departs Eltham High Street 10am, leaves Capel Manor about 3pm to arrive in Eltham around 4pm. To book contact Richard Mattinson on 020 8859 8656 or go to our contact page to send Richard an e-mail

The 60th annual show took place on a glorious late summers afternoon at St. Mary's School in Eltham and it was encouraging to see so many entries this year bearing in mind the very poor growing conditions we have all experienced this summer. A number of regular exhibitors were missing for various reasons beyond their control including a double puncture suffered by the Chairman, Charles Strangwige, on his way to the venue. However we were very pleased to see first time entries from a number of members, who mostly are plotholders at Pippenhall and we do hope that will encourage more to try showing next year.

Once the exhibitors had completed the staging of their entries just before midday, the three judges got to work to decide who the prize winners would be this year.

At 3pm the hall was opened to exhibitors and the public alike so they could then see who had triumphed. Many members of the society were present and one exhibitor, Clive Bennett came along in his 'uniform' as the Pearly King of Woolwich, and this certainly added an extra sparkle to the afternoon.

As the weather was so good many visitors took advantage of the tea and home made cake from the refreshment counter and went outside to enjoy the warm sunny weather. Others were tempted by the plants and local honey produced by our treasurer, Mike Hill, which were on sale through the afternoon.

4.15pm quickly came and everyone gathered back in the main hall for the prize giving which was announced by Mike Hill with prizes being presented by Charles Strangwige to mark his 60 years of support for the society.

The raffle was then drawn and Finn Dowling, the son of one of the Pippenhall allotment plotholders, assisted Charles by drawing the winning tickets before society secretary Richard Mattinson, presented Charles with a gift to thank him for his dedicated support for the society since he helped found it in 1952. Some exhibitors then collected their entries to take home, whilst others were sold off by Iris Griffin, before the event came to a close for another year.

We are all looking forward to next years event already, and the provisional date set for the 61st show is Saturday the 7th September 2013.