With their fragrant blooms, statues, ornaments and water features, exhibitors in a town's open gardens trail have raised £5,400.

Residents from five homes in Deal opened their outdoor spaces on Sunday (July 4) welcoming 435 visitors.

Those on view were within an eight minute walk of each other including the gardens of: Lyn and Peter Buller in West Street, Lyn Freeman and Barry Popple of George Alley, Gill Walshe of Robert Street, Christine and Peter Hayes-Watkins in Robert Street and a new garden this year was that of Martin Parkes and Paul Green in St Andrews Road.

A map showed visitors where to find the homes and entry to each was £5.

Lyn Buller, co-ordinator for Deal Open Gardens, said Black Rock match funded the £2700 collected in the gardens raising the tally to £5,400 and thatcash is for the National (open) Garden Scheme (NGS) charities.

In 2020 these included Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Carers Support, Parkinson's and the Queen's Institute for Nursing.

It was an increase on the money raised last year, which because of reduced capacity at socially distanced timed slots, £2,000 was raised.

Read more: All the latest news from Deal