Two Richmond gardens

The open gardens season is in full flow and in order to make the most of the opportunity this offers it is sometimes necessary to go a little out of your way to see some of them. So it was that I came to be cycling around Richmond one afternoon.

First up was St. Margaret's, an area I know little about. I chose to avoid the easy route due to the traffic and crowds and went a more interesting route through Teddington and Twickenham instead.

St. Margaret's itself is cruelly bisected by the ever-busy A316 and the garden was just the other side of it.

As garden goes, it was very much in the family home category and while it was not that large every corner was bustling with interesting shapes and colours, such as the round wet bed with a curved wooden path over it.

But it was the business of the garden that really impressed with no corner left unplanted so that there was always something to enjoy wherever you looked. Definitely worth the ride.

Back across the river towards the centre of Richmond and a different garden altogether. There is no way past it, the garden at The Trumpeter's is simply huge, magnificent and enchanting.

There are several sections to the garden each with its own character and reason for being there. Just off to the side of the main lawn at the font of the house is a more formal cultured lawn with a sweet line of trees to lead you through it.

Other parts of the garden house thick rich borders, a large pond, a secluded water feature, a wild flower woodland, classic statues, a mock castle and some doves.

This variety draws you deeper and deeper in to the garden until you find yourself miraculously next to the river that you thought was a long way away. It is only then that you realise just how far you have walked from the house and how big the garden really is.