Open gardens season
A new booklet lists the Yorkshire gardens that are open to the public this year, writes David Overend.
What goes around comes around, such is the nature of gardening. So, come the start of March, the pressure is on for thousands of gardeners. Pruning and planting, primping and prettifying, preparing and panicking – this is the start of the great open gardens season, and in particular, for the National Garden Scheme (NGS), which last year donated more than £3m to various nursing and health charities.
Visiting an NGS garden is a must-do event, and Yorkshire has played its part. Of that £3m-plus raised last year, more than £163,000 came from this county.
Last month saw the start of the 2020 campaign, with a trickle of gardens welcoming visitors.
As Nature begins to get into her stride, weekends will gradually offer the chance to visit numerous gardens great and small. For many people, it is the opportunity to see how others have sown, grown and created living works of art.
In Yorkshire, 112 gardens are opening this year for the NGS, and all are listed in a booklet, Yorkshire Gardens 2020.
Many gardens will open on a day (or days) especially for the NGS; others can be visited only by prior arrangement – including Great Cliff Exotic Garden, near Wakefield, which boasts a huge collection of palms, bamboos and even bananas.
Eight new gardens will open this year, including Kirkwood Hospice, in Dalton, Huddersfield, while old favourites such as Jackson’s Wold, Dove Cottage Nursery Garden and Stillingfleet Lodge return.
Yorkshire Gardens 2020 is available free. The Yellow Book, listing all NGS openings throughout this year, is available in bookshops, or visit ngs.org.