Speaker: Mandy Bradshaw
Subject – “Beyond the Garden Gate – her guide to 12 Cotswold Gardens and their Creation”
For our first get-together of 2024, a group of 40+ MUWAGA members and guests were entertained by journalist and photographer Mandy Bradshaw.
What a delight it was to see an extraordinary range of fine photographs of her selection of twelve Cotswold ( and nearby) gardens, described with obvious enthusiasm as well as incisive comments on the key qualities of each of them.
Included in the gardens Mandy presented were some surprises – for example, a fascinating garden in Cirencester lovingly developed by Susan Beck and featured on Mandy’s website here .
Mandy described this garden for us under the title “An Unusual Setting”. Indeed, Mandy’s use of such simple titles in her slideshow of her chosen twelve gardens drew us into each of them thematically. This echoed the idea of a garden vista, designed to draw us into the essence of each.
Under another title “Dreams Come True”, Mandy described how Roger Head took the seriously-neglected Highnam Court gardens back to and beyond their former glory. Highnam is described on their website here , but Mandy’s own photos showed us the delights, for example, of Highnam’s “Monet Lake” and huge rose garden from her own expert eyes.
Included in Mandy’s presentation we had an update on the activities at the Cotswold Wildlife Gardens. Members will recall our February 2022 talk by Jan Lambourn, Head Gardener at the park. Mandy had her own stories to tell about her visits there.
The evening went quickly, and we were left with plenty to think about when it comes to planning our own garden visits for 2024.
About Mandy Bradshaw – “The Chatty Gardener“
Mandy described herself inter alia as “a writer who takes photos” – a modest epithet for one who has upwards of 25 year experience in writing about and visiting gardens nationwide, and engaging with owners and developers as an integral part of her journalism. More about Mandy is on her website here.
