Visit an NGS garden this summer

At this time of year, for many of us, thoughts turn to gardens and gardening and, perhaps, garden visiting. The wonderful National Garden Scheme has for many years been providing opportunities for garden visits throughout the country, while raising large donations for very worthy charities.

Its origins go back to 1859 when Liverpool merchant, William Rathbone, employed a nurse to care for his wife. After she died he retained the nurse to help those who could not afford nursing support and raised funds for recruitment and training of more nurses. So, began the idea of district nursing – one which was taken up across the country and supported by Queen Victoria, who added her Jubilee Fund into the charity to pay for the training of nurses.

By 1926 a fund was set up to train and give pension support for the nurses and, a year later, a council member, Miss Elsie Wagg, put forward the idea of using the national obsession with gardening to raise money for the nurses. Thus, the NGS was founded and has been delighting young and old alike, as people wander through gardens large and small, eat cake, drink tea, follow treasure trails, look at animals, discover new plants and ideas to help them plan their own garden, or just chat to the people around them.

In 1927, the original 609 gardens raised £8,000 for the Queen’s Nursing Institute and, over time, the list of nursing charities and open gardens has grown with the result that, in 2017, over £3 million was raised and shared between Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, Queens’s Nursing Institute, Perennial, Parkinson’s UK, MS Society and the National Autistic Society, making a total of £50 million in 90 years!

Here in Devon, of course, we have our fair share of beautiful gardens and many of them close enough to Okehampton for an afternoon’s visit. So, grab yourself a (free) Devon ‘yellow book’ from the library, Okement Centre, local garden centres, pubs and many other places – including the gardens themselves.

New this year are Blackaton near Throwleigh TQ13 8HW, opening May 26th and 27th; a lovely rural garden in a high wooded valley with mature rhododendrons, mixed shrubs and perennials. Corscombe Gardens near Okehampton EX20 1SD are opening on August 4th and 5th; two beautiful but very different summer gardens. Home-made teas – always an attraction – are available at all these openings.

Local gardens that have been opening for some years are; Bowdens, Sticklepath, EX20 2NL; Higher Cullaford, Spreyton, EX17 5AX; Holes Meadow, South Zeal, EX20 2JS; two Moretonhampstead Gardens, TQ13 8PW and Andrew’s Corner, Belstone, EX20 1RD which has now been opening since 1972.

For more information on these gardens and more, visit ngs.org.uk 

Robin & Edwina Hill