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Harlow Carr Gardeners

Harlow Carr Gardeners

As the most northerly of the RHS Gardens, Harlow Carr celebrates its Yorkshire character and charm. Along with innovative design and creative planting, the 58 acres has wonderful variety from sweeping lawns, woodland, water, colourful borders to its more relaxed flower meadows. In this blog we will keep you updated with what’s going on in the garden and what’s looking good when, as well as letting you know about the exciting programme of events throughout the year. It would be great to hear back from you too!

  • Date Joined: 02 Jun 2008

Recent Comments

HARLOW CARR CLOSED DUE TO HEAVY SNOWFALL

Posted by Harlow Carr Gardeners on 24 Dec 2009 at 10:33 AM

Good morning! Due to heavy snowfall at Harlow Carr we have taken the decision to close the garden to visitors today (Christmas Eve). The shop and Plant Centre will remain open until 12 noon.

We are still scheduled to open on Boxing Day although it is advised that visitors ring ahead to check the situation before travel.

Have a lovely Christmas from all at Harlow Carr!

Comments

alwyn said:

Hi. Would just like to leave some feedback following a vist to the gardens on 28th December.

Only after paying admission and being offered the opportunity to become members, we were advised that there were "some slippery patches out there". The car park was well-cleared however, and we took the warning at face value to be careful.

We were well-equipped for the weather, hiking boots etc, but were not anticipating a really difficult experience of trying to walk our way through the gardens due to the conditions underfoot.

Very little of the pathway had been cleared, and none, it seemed to us, gritted to enable paying visitors to manoeuvre safely around the gardens. The result was thick sheet ice on the paths and really dangerous walking conditions.

We did notice vehicle tracks around the garden, presumably to enable workers to get safely around the site.

What a pity more precautions were not made to enable guests to do the same. Some gritting, if not clearing, would have made such a difference. Instead of concentrating on keeping our footing, we could have paid more attention to the garden itself, beautiful even under the snow.

We saw elderly visitors struggle with the conditions underfoot, and families attempting to push their way around with buggies proving a very difficult task.Lots of people commented negatively on the conditions.

As someone with responsibility for a large site with visitors,it surprised me that so little had seemed to be done to ensure our safety whilst paying for the visit.

I really do feel that we should have been warned in a realistic way about the walking conditions before we paid to enable us to make the choice of whether to proceed or not. Had we been advised that the paths were not cleared or gritted, I doubt we would have proceeded.

We had planned our visit for several weeks, travelling from Newcastle to attend and actually spent more time in the tea-room than in the garden due to the walking conditions.

I understand that the RHS cannot be responsible for the weather conditions, but safe site management should be a higher priority.

on 31 Dec 2009 at 10:31 AM