Future Events

Click here to book any of our future events online using a credit or debit card. If you have any questions or comments about our events, please contact us. Members must log in to receive automatic discount when booking.

Balmoral Cottage, Benenden – 6th July 2021 at 10:30

Location: Park close to the church and walk 100 yards down the lane to the west of the church (TN17 4DL)

Cost: £18.00, Members £15.00 (Lunch is not included)

This event is fully booked, but you may register on the waiting list in case places become available.There are currently 3 people on the waiting list for this event.

Balmoral Cottage, Benenden
Here is another chance to make a private visit to Charlotte and Donald Molesworth's unique creation. Marvellously imaginative topiary characterises this atmospheric space of just one acre, crammed with planting surprises at every turn, and vistas leading to secret spaces round every corner. Balmoral is also a classic example of the value of recycling, and a haven for bird and insect life, as well as small mammals. Charlotte and Donald will be on hand to explain how in 30 years of inspiration and energy you can create a mini-masterpiece!

Balmoral was once the kitchen garden for 'Cherry' Ingram's garden at The Grange. Lunch can be had at The Bull (walking distance). This is not included in the price.

KGT contact: Richard Stileman richstileman@btinternet.com 07968787950



GARDEN PARTY – 31st July 2021 at 15:30

Location: HOLE PARK, Rolvenden TN17 4JA

Cost: £10.00

Book online. There are currently 60 places available for this event.

By kind permission of Edward and Clare Barham

All members and their friends are invited to a splendid afternoon tea and to enjoy the magnificent year-round garden and extensive park, open exclusively for Kent Gardens Trust on July 31st .



White House Farm, Ightham – 12th August 2021 at 10:00

Location: White House Farm, High Cross Rd, Ivy Hatch, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 0NN

Cost: £30.00, Members £25.00 (to include tea / coffee on arrival. Lunch is not included, but tables will be reserved at The George and Dragon in Ightham)

This event is fully booked, but you may register on the waiting list in case places become available.There are currently 2 people on the waiting list for this event.

We are delighted to have the opportunity to pay a return visit to the private garden at White House Farm, home to Maurice Foster. One of Britain’s most distinguished plantsmen, Maurice is holder of the Victoria Medal of Honour, the RHS’s highest award and has created a wonderful 15 acre garden at White House Farm over the past forty years. Maurice’s stated overall aim in the creation of this garden was to achieve year-round colour from trees and shrubs and the garden and arboretum certainly now offer a gloriously comprehensive collection of rare and unusual trees and shrubs. Many of these plants have been grown from seed collected in the wild by Maurice and other plantsmen on expeditions to China and Mongolia and the collection is
recognised as one of the finest in the country. Given the time of year, one of the highlights of our visit will be to see Maurice's amazing collection of Hydrangeas. Please note that the terrain is hilly and unsuited to those of limited mobility.

KGT contact Alison Philip Alison@thephilips.co.uk 01732 491044



Wotton House and Albury Park, Nr. Dorking Surrey – 14th September 2021 at 10:30

Location: Wotton House, RH5 6HS, then Albury Park, GU5 9BB

Cost: £55.00, Members £50.00 (to include coffee on arrival at Wotton, and then a sandwich lunch at Wotton)

This event is fully booked, but you may register on the waiting list in case places become available.There are currently 6 people on the waiting list for this event.

John Evelyn ( 1620-1706 ) was born at Wotton, ‘my most cherished place on earth’. The house lies in the valley of the little Tillingbourne river, west of Dorking. It has been owned by the Evelyn family since 1579, but has been extensively restructured and enlarged since then. It is now an hotel. In 1640 John’s older brother George created an Italianate garden around the house to John’s designs. Although major modifications have been made, key features of the original gardens survive, including the terraced mount and classical garden temple.
If time permits we will briefly visit Wotton Church which contains the Evelyn mausoleum.

Albury Park, with its Grade 1 registered park and garden, is just five miles from Wotton and also on the Tillingbourne. It now belongs to the Duke of Northumberland. In the 17th century the estate was owned by the Earl of Arundel, a close friend of John Evelyn. Evelyn produced remarkable plans for the site which his friend duly followed, and much is still there today: extensive terracing (390 metres long!), a bath house, a semi-circular pool, and the unique tunnel, or ‘crypta’, an idea from Naples. Evelyn’s vineyards and canals were removed in the 19th century after the new owner Henry Drummond employed AWN Pugin to remodel the house. A collection of specimen trees was planted which in maturity are a serendipitous complement to the Evelyn elements.

We will be guided at both Wotton and Albury by Cherrill Sands and Brenda Lewis, both of whom were deeply involved with Evelyn when Surrey Gardens Trust marked the 300th anniversary of his death.

KGT contact: Richard Stileman Richstileman@btinternet.com 07968787950

The



Fire, Plague and 17C London Life – 2nd October 2021 at 10:30

Location: Blackfriars Tube Station

Cost: £60.00, Members £55.00 (to include lunch near Tower Hill)

This event is fully booked, but you may register on the waiting list in case places become available.There are currently 2 people on the waiting list for this event.

As seen through the eyes of Pepys and Evelyn
This tailor-made half-day walk with guide Diana Kelsey was designed to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Evelyn, and 360 years from the start of Samuel Pepys’s diary. Both diarists, who became close friends, witnessed and chronicled some of the most turbulent years of London’s history and their diaries give an insight into both public and everyday life of mid-17th C London. However, the two men and their diaries were very different. Evelyn, aware of his position at the centre of English social and political life in the 17C and friend of Charles II, was more circumspect and restrained in his commentary on London. Pepys in contrast did not hold back from recording details of everyday high as well as low life including his own philandering!
The route of this walk is necessarily based on Pepys’s life (Evelyn lived downstream at Deptford), starting where he was born, weaving through the narrow alleyways along routes that he would have known, ending at the church where he is buried. Diana’s commentary will however draw extensively on both diarists’ eye-witness accounts of the Plague in 1665, the Great Fire of 1666, and the regeneration of the City after those cataclysmic events.

KGT contact Richard Stileman richstileman@btinternet.com 07968787950



Fire, Plague and 17C London Life – 9th October 2021 at 10:30

Location: Blackfriars Tube station

Cost: £60.00, Members £55.00 (to include lunch near Tower Hill)

Book online. There are currently 2 places available for this event.

As seen through the eyes of Pepys and Evelyn
This tailor-made half-day walk with guide Diana Kelsey was designed to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Evelyn, and 360 years from the start of Samuel Pepys’s diary. Both diarists, who became close friends, witnessed and chronicled some of the most turbulent years of London’s history and their diaries give an insight into both public and everyday life of mid-17th C London. However, the two men and their diaries were very different. Evelyn, aware of his position at the centre of English social and political life in the 17C and friend of Charles II, was more circumspect and restrained in his commentary on London. Pepys in contrast did not hold back from recording details of everyday high as well as low life including his own philandering!
The route of this walk is necessarily based on Pepys’s life (Evelyn lived downstream at Deptford), starting where he was born, weaving through the narrow alleyways along routes that he would have known, ending at the church where he is buried. Diana’s commentary will however draw extensively on both diarists’ eye-witness accounts of the Plague in 1665, the Great Fire of 1666, and the regeneration of the City after those cataclysmic events.

KGT contact Richard Stileman richstileman@btinternet.com 07968787950



The KGT Autumn Meeting - Members' Day – 7th November 2021 at 14:30

Location: The Millenium Village Hall, Egerton, TN27 9DS

Cost: £15.00 (to include afternoon tea and cakes)

Book online. There are currently 79 places available for this event.

Serendipitously, two of our Members have each just had published importantand attractive books which offer historical perspectives of, at one end of the scale, designed landscapes, and at the other end of the scale, individual plants and plant introductions. They have kindly agreed to present their work as the centrepieces of our Autumn Meeting. Signed copies of both books will be available.