Teme Valley Market at The Talbot, Knightwick

This is a monthly market, on the second Sunday of each month. Stalls are housed under cover in the grounds of this old coaching inn between Worcester and Bromyard and stallholders genuinely make, grow, ferment or bake their wares and the selection can furnish your larder and provide ingredients for a full menu. As well as food, designer-made stalls include blacksmithing, textile design and knitwear and jewellery. Do come and say hello - you'll find me between lovely ganseys and delicate lace knits of yan tyan tethera and the spices of Belinda Wellsman's "Snoggable Garlic". For details consult http://www.temevalleymarket.co.uk/about-the-market.html

Clare de la Torre.

Forthcoming Markets are held:

Sunday 10th May, Sunday 14th June, Sunday 12th July and Sunday 9th August.

Red Cross Spring Garden Event - 29th April 2015

This is the first time I will be taking part in this mainly horticultural day out, which is held every year in different country estates in Herefordshire. The Whitfield Estate near Wormbridge hosts this fund-raising event which is held mainly outdoors and in marquees.

Expect to find 75 exhibitors, nurseries, corporate supporters and sponsors will come together to provide an array of garden related items, plants, country clothing and outdoor lifestyle ranges.
The event itself will take place on the parkland, but visitors will also have access to some of the private gardens. Features include wild flowers, ponds, a walled garden, many flowering magnolias (species and hybrids), a ginkgo tree dating from 1780, and a 1.5 mile woodland walk with a redwood grove from 1851. For more details, consult the Red Cross website.

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Gardens in the Wild - 20/21st June 2015

This is the second festival celebrating the qualities that make the gardens and landscape of Herefordshire so special and the theme of the festival is to explore the conflict between the natural and the contrived, control and freedom, wild beauty and containment in the garden and the surrounding landscape.

Centred at Stagg Meadow, Titley HR5 3RL, the festival talks will be from nationally acclaimed garden writers, designers and plantsmen: Alys Fowler, Helena Attlee, James Hitchmough, Derry Watkins, Timothy Walker, Tim Richardson and Anna Pavord. These will take place in the village hall next to the Meadow.

I will have a display of my garden planters and bird baths in the meadow and gardens nearby will be open in the afternoon, including several private gems not usually open to the public. Road maps and cycle routes will be provided. There will be walks in wild flower meadows managed by Herefordshire Nature Trust and tours of the woods and historic environs of Titley. For more detailed information consult Gardens in the Wild

Mark de la Torre