THE NATIONAL GARDEN SCHEME
garden looked wonderful with some eye-catching landscaping design. And Penny’s personal accounts of her interaction with visitors was engaging. “People are always incredibly appreciative and ask lots of questions. You can see that they love the garden and always say so. It’s lovely too to hear from people who have visited before. It’s so nice to hear them say that they’ve created new design features just like the ones they’ve seen here – and show me photographs too. It’s wonderful!” Penny, who was awarded a CBE in 2017 in recognition of her services helping to transform the NGS, is undoubtedly a wonderful ambassador for the scheme. She is a former Chairman and remains active as a County Organiser volunteer. As we chatted I could see the undoubted passion she has when receiving visitors to her garden, which include booked groups visiting from various European countries - and from as far away as Japan and Australia! “Gardening provides the satisfaction of getting outside in the fresh air, and the challenge of making things grow the way you want them to. It’s not always easy. But you’ve created something very nice and it’s wonderful to share it – and if you can raise money for charity by doing it what could be better?” George had also emphasised the benefits of gardening for people’s health and well-being. “We commissioned a report from The Kings Fund (the health charity working to improve health and care in England) in 2016. It highlighted the concept that being in a garden or a green space can be incredibly good for your health. It emphasised the benefits for people with mental health issues too, particularly depression. A chunk of our annual donations now go to nursing healthcare charities for garden-focused projects.” Thinking of joining in? What criteria does your garden need to meet? “County by county we have teams of volunteers who help to make the scheme so successful. Each has a County Organiser in charge who assess gardens that have March 2019
applied directly or who have been recommended by word-of-mouth,” George explained. “When they visit they are looking essentially for three key elements in a varying mix of quality, interest, and character. Some gardens have lots of all of them. Others may have incredibly high quality but possibly may not be so characterful. Or have more interest. Essentially we are looking for qualities that would keep visitors interested for say 45 minutes or so, although that’s not applied formally. It’s really that the assessment is intended to avoid disappointed visitors.” My own gardening skills are embarrassingly limited but I will certainly be visiting gardens taking part in the scheme around Surrey and Sussex this year to actively support the charity - and perhaps to seek some inspiration! There is an amazing array of ticketed gardens to visit and a series of events to take part in. Visit the NGS website to find out what’s on – they also have a mobile app you can download to help search for gardens near to you, and which provides details about the gardens and location directions too. Phil Kemp is a Godalming-based writer and photographer. www.weyriver.co.uk FIND OUT MORE The National Garden Scheme - www.ngs.org.uk www.facebook.com/NationalGardenScheme www.twitter.com/NGSOpenGardens www.instagram.com/nationalgardenscheme
We have five copies of the NGS Garden Visitor’s Handbook 2019 to give away. Please visit www.vantagepointmag.co.uk to enter.
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