The National Garden Scheme Festival 6th & 7th June

Posted: May 31st, 2015

Four hundred private gardens to visit in two days is an astonishing statistic but that is what the National Garden Scheme’s (known by many as the NGS) annual weekend Festival (6^th & 7^th June) is all about.

The NGS was originally set up in 1927 to raise money for nurses who didn’t have pensions in that now distant era. Since then it has given away some £45 million to various charities including Macmillan Nurses. The formula is simple, primp and tweak your garden into a perfect state, charge people a modest entrance fee and another small charge for a scrumptious piece of cake

62 Hungerford Road, London N.7. A densely planted mature garden with several different seating areas.

with a cup of tea and hey presto you have joined the ranks of some 3,800 gardens open to the public under the auspices of the scheme. Full details of all the gardens open are listed in a book known as ‘The Yellow Book’ which appears each spring. It is a winning formula.

Dovecote Barn, Stoke Lacy, Hereford. A 2 acre organic garden designed in 2008 looking out to the Malvern Hills.

The NGS Festival is a wonderful way to celebrate Mid-Summer’ says George Plumptre, Chief Executive of the NGS, who dreamed up the festival three years ago. ‘It is the optimum time for garden visiting when they should all be looking at their best’. The four hundred gardens scattered right across England and Wales are extraordinarily varied in both size and style, ranging from the traditional country house garden to funky urban gardens to village and city ‘group gardens’(several gardens clustered together). Hip hip hurrah is the resounding cry that should be emanating from keen garden visitors all over the land.

Cae Newydd, Rhosgoch, Anglesey, A garden which blends seamlessly into the surrounding landscape with stunning views of Snowdonia and Llyn Alaw. Hay meadow best seen in June.

‘Visiting a garden is a nice relaxing experience’ says Mr. Plumptre. ‘I grew up with the NGS’ . He was brought up at Goodnestone Park, near Wingham in Kent (www.goodnestoneparkgardens.co.uk – see my blog posted February 2015 ). His mother, Margaret, Lady FitzWalter, would give him the distinctive NGS yellow arrows and say ‘On your bike and put them up’.

The Old Rectory, Limington, Nr. Yeovil, Somerset. A romantic walled garden with formal parterres and herbaceous borders.

Wearing another hat, Plumptre is a distinguished garden writer, and his latest book, English Country House Gardens published by Francis Lincoln, won the Garden Media Award for the most ‘Inspirational Book of the Year’ in 2014.

Matara Gardens of Wellbeing, Kingscote, N. Tetbury, Gloucestershire. A garden dedicated to the symbolic, spiritual and cultural role of trees including a Chinese scholar garden, a Japanese tea garden and a Shinto woodland.

All too conscious that until recently the NGS had an elitist image and evokedgardens surrounding old rectories or houses with the epithet ‘Manor’, ‘Place’ or even ‘Park, George is energetically revolutionising the NGS. To this end the NGS has been mentioned on the ‘One Show’ and Radio Two. When Clare Balding mentioned the NGS on her radio show (it has 2.5 million listeners), the website crashed an hour and a half later. In 1980 there were only 30 gardens open for the NGS in London; today there are more than 300.

Birtsmorton Court, Nr. Malvern, Worcestershire.

A visit to an NGS garden make a perfect outing for Granny and these days with the increasing emphasis on wildlife in the garden for the children too. Gardens only open for one or two days a year are irresistible for the locals, often attracting hundreds of visitors eager to see their neighbour’s horticultural taste.

St. Michael’s Mount, Marazion, Cornwall.
A sub-tropical coastal garden with tender plants from Mexico, the Canary Islands and South Africa. The terraced beds cling to granite slopes.

‘There is nothing else like it in the world’ observes George Plumptre. The TV presenter Joe Swift says ‘whether you are a seasoned garden visitor or a first time supporter, I urge you to stop by a couple of gardens over the Festival weekend and join in the celebration of the great variety of gardens.’