A rare chance to explore garden haven at Le Gouffre

A self-heating swimming pool linked to a waterfall and rock formations stole the show, and highlighted the water-themed grounds owned by Susie and David Farnon. The pool has a gravel platform with water plants on each side which can reach about 30C and heats the rest of the pool.

‘We have lived here for 32 years and when we arrived there was just one tree,’ said Mrs Farnon.

‘We have done a lot of planting since. I’m very into water so there are ponds everywhere. Outside the front is the pond with my koi fish in. I started collecting koi 25 years ago and they were all three inches big, now they’re massive, the birds don’t even try to go near them.’

The family has a gardener to help with the large areas of mowing, but Mrs Farnon perfects the garden through trial and error.

‘I don’t know the names of anything, I just think something will look nice and plant it in the ground and hope they do well. If not I’ll move them into my plant hospital so they can recover and move them somewhere else,’ she said.

The open garden event was raising money for the Guernsey Cheshire Home.

‘We currently have 11 full-time residents and offer respite, as well as day visitors, but in order to provide those services we have to raise more than £1.5m. each year because we receive no direct States funding,’ said Guernsey Cheshire Home patron Cherry McMillen.

‘Without events like this we would not be able to raise money or awareness and we are very thankful to Floral Guernsey for these opportunities.’