HAMPSHIRE Country and Garden Festival, returns to Bere Mill, Whitchurch, on Saturday and Sunday June 8-9.

There will be a host of entertainment, demonstrations and workshops, gift and garden stalls, plus delicious food and drink, appealing to everyone who loves the great outdoors.

This year’s event will be a celebration of the restoration of the listed building Bere Mill, after it was severely damaged by fire in February 2018. Rupert Nabarro, owner of the mill, will give a talk about how he and his wife restored the mill.

The Festival opens from 10am until 5pm on Sunday 9 June, with an array of things to do. Festival visitors can explore a feast of horticultural treasures and purchase a selection of plants for their garden from a host of well-known specialist nurserymen, including Hardy’s Cottage Garden Plants and Fernlea Nurseries. A wide range of more than 40 stalls will also sell art, gifts, food, wine and spirits from Hampshire’s finest producers and retailers.

Gardener’s Question Time – this is one of the most popular events, chaired by Stefan Buczacki, well known former panelist and chairman of Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time.

TALKS

Sarah Eberle: Designing a Chelsea Garden

Sarah, a landscape architect and garden designer with 42 years in the industry, mostly spent in Hampshire, will give a fascinating insight into designing a garden for the Chelsea Flower Show. She’ll reveal some of the secrets of her success in winning 15 Gold Medals.

Rosy Hardy: Choosing perennials for summer colour

Rosy Hardy is an award winning nurseryman and has been growing herbaceous perennials commercially for the past 30 years. A regular TV presenter, she has won 23 gold medals at The Chelsea Flower Show. She’ll talk about how to choose perennials for the best summer colour, drawing on her experience in creating beautiful herbaceous borders and gardens.

Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has been designing gardens in England and abroad for nearly 40 years and who had won two gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show, will give a talk about her books ‘The Good Granny Guides’.

There will be plenty of fare to consume at the festival, or to take away to enjoy at home, from ice cream to charcuterie and hog roasts; cider to craft beer and sparkling English wine.

Discounted tickets are available online at www.hampshiregardenfestival.co.uk or by calling 01256 314759:

Adult: £8 (£10 on the day), Child: £4 (£5 on the day), Family (2 adults and up to 3 children): £20 (£25 on day).

Under 5s go free

Opening Evening

The Festival kicks off with an evening event at Bere Mill on Saturday 8 June from 6.30-10.00pm, sponsored by JM Finn Wealth Management, where guest speaker and best-selling novelist Santa Montefiore* will be ‘in conversation’ with former BBC and ITV presenter, producer and editor, Professor Khalid Aziz** LVO DL FRSA. Tickets cost £35 per person and include canapés, fizz from local Hampshire vineyard, Coates and Seely, a picnic supper, an auction and a twilight guided garden tour by Rupert Nabarro.

All proceeds from the festival will go to the Hampshire Medical Fund to raise money for a Sysmex Sentimag Monitor that hugely improves a breast cancer patient’s experience of surgery, improves efficiency with theatre timetabling and will benefit over 200 patients a year.