Little Common's open gardens

One was a quirky and highly individual garden belonging to Pat and Dave Crouch of Barnhorn Road, and the other the classic peaceful English haven of Wendy and George Rogers who live just off Maple Walk.

In both cases however, it is the women who wield the trowel.

Pat is a spontaneous gardener who has put her unusual ideas and unique touches into her creation - for instance, she has a Dogwood bed which she dug in the place her dog liked to sit, and is now a stunning memorial to her pets. Central to the bed is a wooden throne in which Pat used to sit before it was taken over by a vibrant clematis, and nearby in the soil is a greyhound, jack russell and a terrier.

Frogs are a theme in the garden - there are 20 dotted around, of different shapes and sizes - and Pat has also installed a frog band, some flowerpot men, and a Bob Flowerdew with his hair in two plaits.

She said: "I have built a folly at the bottom because I saw Tatton

Park in Cheshire and I thought - I could do that. And my husband made me a stile because there was one in Tatton Park, and I also have a little door with a gnome going out under a bush. They are just silly little things, but it is entertaining."

There is a central lawn in a flowing organic shape surrounded by explosions of colour - Pat has more than 40 hard geraniums and 50 different clematis.

"Also I have got a collection of grass - I love grass, all different sorts, and acers around the pond. I love unusual plants and try to get those in."

Wendy Rogers has designed her garden around a huge and beautiful pond which is thought to be over 200 years old. The house, Friar's Charm, is built where a cattle byre once stood, and when Lord Sainsbury lived in Collington Rise he kept his horses on this piece of land - Friar's Charm was the name of one of his horses.

Wendy is passionate about garden and loves to see it change from day to day through the seasons.

"The garden should flow, it should roll through the seasons, with one thing after another, that is what the garden is to me."

Her favourite plants includes Penstemon, which she has planted in pink and lilac, and she finds slugs and snails do not like it.

"They flower from now until the frosts come...I also like the day lilies, which are the opposite really. I have them here in orange, pink and yellow, and they just last for one day. All the colours are wonderful in their variations, and if you look at them, they are absolutely beautiful."

Wendy has enjoyed gardens since she was a child because her father also loved his garden.

"I always had a garden - a little garden within a garden, and I helped him. I think it stems from there. It is hard work, but it is therapeutic, yes...you can take out all your troubles on the garden.

If you are angry with somebody you can just go and dig something, or just walk around. I could walk around six times a day and still see something different I didn't see before, something just out or that has just grown that much.

"Gardeners do not plan just for a year...they plan for a lifetime, like Geoff Hamilton, who was still talking about what he was going to do in the garden the day before he died."