When Lewis Cottage Garden opened to the public over the May bank holiday weekend, Richard Orton was not just surprised by the number of visitors but the wide age range of the people who came. Here he reflects on the joys of sharing your garden with others and what even those with the smallest outdoor spaces can learn from such visits. The garden is open to the public again on the weekend of 26/27 June.

The owners of Lewis Cottage are busy preparing to open their delightful garden to the public this weekend (29, 30 and 31 May) as part of the National Garden Scheme. The garden will open again on 27 and 28 June and, after a disappointing year when they couldn’t open at all, they are hoping to welcome back their regular visitors as well as plenty of new ones. But it is not just human visitors they are welcoming this year at Lewis Cottage, as Richard Orton reports.

Nancy Murgatroyd visited Lewis Cottage Garden near Spreyton, which reopened to the public over the May bank holiday weekend.

As the insects and plants at Lewis Cottage spring into life, they are preparing to welcome back visitors to their garden by planting along the banks of their long driveway. Among his gardening tips for May, Richard Orton urges us to be creative if we can’t get the plants we want at the garden centre.

Time to Sow & Grow - April in the Lewis Cottage Garden

With many of us spending more time in our gardens, local gardening expert Andy Colquhoun shares some tips for getting your soil into shape.

Snowdrops in abundance, daffodils blooming and the hedgerows starting to green up - the signs of spring are everywhere. Richard Orton reports on preparations for the new season at Lewis Cottage.

Is your garden too small to accommodate all the plants you’d like to grow? The answer, says Andy Colqhoun, is to plant upwards.