Islanders are being asked to help a ‘tiny’ Island business reach the top of a national competition.
The Model Village at Godshill has been a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Partner Garden since 2016 and describes itself as a ‘quirky addition’ to the scheme, sitting alongside larger scale RHS Partner Gardens such as Blenheim Palace and Ripley Castle who have more traditional planting schemes.
Now an online voting competition run by the RHS is looking for the best in the UK, and owners at the Model Village at Godshill are hoping Islanders will get behind the attraction and vote for it as the greatest!
The popular Island attraction, ranked by TripAdvisor reviewers as 1 of the top model village attractions in the UK, is renowned for is wide variety of over 3000 conifers as well as it’s playful renditions of life in Shanklin and Godshill in the 1930s on the Isle of Wight.
Penny Dyer, who runs the Model Village at Godshill with her husband Stuart, takes up the story:
“Our conifer collection began in the late 70s on a bit of a whim, to add colour and texture to the small buildings in the Model Village. This has evolved into a huge collection of manicured conifers and shrubs. We know from the quantity and quality of feedback from our visitors that the horticultural aspect is as much appreciated as the models.”
The RHS describes Partner Gardens as ‘offering inspiration to keen gardeners through high standards of design and/or planting, resulting in a stimulating mix of styles that visitors should find interesting throughout the gardening year’ and the competition will feature a regional winner and an overall winner, and encourages us to vote for a nearby garden.
Penny says that the Model Village gives visitors a chance to see something different:
“Our gardens offer the opportunity to see how it is possible to maintain a wide variety of conifers at this small scale. With the decreasing size of the average family garden this provides inspiration for keen gardeners, to use this versatile tree to provide colour all year round and interest at home.”
Penny adds that winning would mean a great deal:
“We are delighted to be included in the RHS Partner Garden family and it is validation of all the years of hard work for a small family business. To win would be huge recognition for our gardening team of all their hard work over the last 50+ years, building and manicuring our 3,000+ conifer collection.”
To vote for the Model Village at Godshill, you can click here.
Voting closes at 12:00 on 29th September 2023 and the winners announced in November.
Well done Fred, the unsung hero of the Model Village.