On Saturday 4 July, a summer barbecue will take place at the beautiful Denmans Gardens for our American Patrons.
Guests will enjoy a generous BBQ menu featuring chicken, beef burgers, sausages, rump steak, a vegetarian option, potato salad, American-style beans, corn-on-the-cob, sauces and an ice cream cookie sandwich.
The evening also includes a private tour of the gardens, led by owner and designer Gwendoline van Paasschen (see below for more information).
This relaxed summer gathering offers a chance to enjoy the gardens at their most magical, as the evening light casts long shadows across the lawns, the meadow reaches its peak and the hydrangeas are at their best. It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Independence Day in a distinctive setting and to meet others while enjoying the surroundings.
Gwendolyn van Paasschen and Denmans Gardens
Denmans is a registered Grade II garden in the Sussex South Downs. Restoration, underway since 2018, has won Gold in the South and South East in Bloom competition in 2021 and 2022. The garden is also open under the NGS.
Gwendolyn van Paasschen began her career in Washington DC as a US Senate legislative assistant to Senators Slade Gorton and John McCain, working on economic issues. She is now a garden designer and writer. She worked with British landscape designer and author John Brookes on a major multi-year project in upstate New York, and later collaborated with him on his memoir, A Landscape Legacy (2018). She also compiled and edited How to Design a Garden, a collection of writings by John Brookes, who began transforming Denmans Gardens in the 1980s.
In 2017 she co-founded, and now chairs, the John Brookes-Denmans Foundation (JBDF). She also serves on the American Trust for the British Library (ATBL) Board of Trustees and is a past president of Kids Empowered by Your Support (KEYS), a Connecticut-based nonprofit providing free music lessons to underserved children in Bridgeport.
American Patrons
This event is for our American Patrons. To find out more about the Patron scheme and the connections between Sussex and North America, and to join, read here.