Poppy Cottage Garden, in Ruan Highlanes, is one of many gardens throughout the county where special fundraising days are being held during 2014 for Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall’s leading local wildlife charity. This is the fourth year running that the Trust has run their highly successful Open Gardens scheme with many gardens this year opening for the first time.

The garden will be opening once again to the public as part of the Open Gardens scheme on Sunday June 1^st from 2pm to 5.30pm. Admission is £3.50 for adults, with children free. Dogs are welcomed on leads and refreshments will be available. All money raised goes towards protecting Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places.

When Tina and Dave they took on the site at Poppy Cottage it was full of old rubbish. They set about clearing the site and designing a garden to give as much colour and interest all the year round. Planted as a series of rooms, which are small gardens in themselves, it is now brimming with bulbs, herbaceous plants, grasses, shrubs and even exotics, mainly colour themed, and there are plenty of places to sit and enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake.

There is also a small orchard with unusual ducks and chickens, and a small nursery area with a wide range of herbaceous plants for sale. In 2003 the opportunity arose to purchase some of the field next door, and they set about combining this new site with the existing land.

Chris Betty, Deputy Head of Marketing and Fundraising for Cornwall Wildlife Trust told Roseland Online  “We are delighted that Poppy Cottage has decided to rejoin the Open Gardens scheme for the Trust. It is a unique garden, with the planning along the idea of a series of rooms. As the county’s leading wildlife charity that protects Cornwall’s wildlife and wild places, these funds are vital for us to continue our conservation work, on land and in our seas”.