I am grateful to Carol for letting us know about Steve’s open garden (poster shown on the blog last week). In the front garden, unusual varieties of plants were for sale, including a Rice Paper plant.

The back garden is very well planned with its walkways, streams, and pond. The exotic plants make you think for a moment that you have been transported far from Abingdon. But typical Abingdon sponge cakes and cups of tea were being served by Steve’s mum. Proceeds and donations went to charities.

Steve started creating the garden when he bought the house in 2009. He was there to answer questions such as, ‘how do you protect the plants during the winter?’ One year the garden was featured on TV and he had visitors from all over the country. This year some return visitors came from the Isle of Wight and thought that the trees were taller and the effect even more tropical.

On the way back from Steve’s garden, we passed another interesting garden over the road: Springfield Drive.