Nick and I decided to open our garden in Woodford Green to our fellow Friends of the Copped Hall Trust on 6 June 2009. Well, I decided to open our garden and then had to wait for a suitable time to break the news to Nick. However, to my delight, he rose to the challenge and developed a sudden urge to topiarize every possible shrub and bush in our garden.
His hard work gave our garden the green structure it lacked and having him in the garden spurred me on to tackle the rather overwhelming task ahead of trying to have everything looking good enough for our visitors.
The three days prior to the big day turned out to be very wet and I was prevented from doing several of the last minute tasks I had saved for then. However, we need not have worried as all of our guests were appreciative and interested and not at all critical. We provided tea and cakes and were not engulfed by huge numbers.

Nicola Munday