University of the Third Age Gardening Club Trip to Chalkhouse Green Farm.

Original story from the Bracknell Forest U3A; HERE, many thanks.

Seventeen members of  Gardening Club 1 ventured out to Chalkhouse Green Farm (near Reading) to see their wonderful gardens.  This is a working farm, but is run more as a hobby than as a rural farm.  The visit    started by us receiving a talk  (in the stable) about the  Suffolk Punch horses they have been trying to breed. What a tale of woe we heard, as their attempts to breed from the horses they own, have not gone at all well.  There are less than 400 of these horses left in the UK, although they are thriving in the USA.  The original   farmhouse has been added to and the gardens themselves have grown in size & beauty  over the years. There is a walled vegetable garden, a cobbled courtyard, a tennis court, an enclosed swimming pool, a  restored 17th century barn,  a donkey paddock, chickens, ducks, geese,  and the most wonderful herbaceous borders, all beautifully looked after by the owners and a variety of helpers.   The borders were perfection, not a weed to be seen, and all seemed to be invisibly supported, no flopping  – how do they do it?
It was a glorious day, and we were treated  to tea and cakes plus strawberries and cream on the terrace.
The perfect end to a most enjoyable garden visit.