Our Reviewer Tony Taft reports:-
Today on a bright sunny day we had an attendance of 18 and 6 apologies, we had no new members or visitors.
Our speaker today was Brian Mackness who is Publicity officer for the “ National Gardens Scheme “
Brian’s talk was entitled “ Gardens Gardening and Health “ in our program but “ Beyond the garden gate “ in his visual presentation.
Now I am a terrible gardener, weeds die in my garden, so I didn’t know if I was going to enjoy this talk, but I found it quite entertaining, I do like walking around a well kept garden and I am well aware of just how much dedication goes into achieving a perfect garden.
Brian started his talk about in 1859 a man called William Rathbone came up with the notion that what this country needed was a community nursing scheme, and with the cooperation of people like Florence Nightingale a scheme was set up
Jumping forward to the year 1939 people started to open their gardens as part of the war effort.
In 1948 the National Health Service along with local authorities take on a home nursing service.
On to present day Brian talked about the National gardens scheme, the object of this scheme is to raise funds for a huge range of charities, he listed all of the charities that benefited from this money, some you see with their shops in most town centres around the country, and some lesser known charities but important charities all the same.
How the scheme works is that if you have a lovely garden that you are quite proud of, and would love to share it with the general public, and raise money in the process this might be for you.
The criteria is that the garden has to be interesting, and could capture the interest of the visitors for at least forty minutes, you would have to provide things like tea, coffee and cakes and any other refreshments you wish to provide, a fee would be paid by the public and all of the funds would go to charities.
In 2024 over 3,300 gardens open for the scheme.
Over 900 new and returning gardens, 36 allotment groups open, 60 community gardens, 15 hospice gardens all open their doors to raise well needed funds.
There are 1,682 gardens that welcome dogs that have to be kept on a lead, and 1,873 gardens offer plants for sale.
There is a free booklet that you can pick up ( see photo ) from your local library/garden centre that lists all of the gardens in our area. You can also visit the website ngs.org.uk
Overall the National garden scheme has donated over £67 million to nursing and health charities, and since 1927 the NGS has become the most significant funder of nursing in the UK.
I have provided some lovely photos of gardens all around the UK, all of these gardens are members of the National gardens scheme, and if you purchase the guide I am sure you will find a garden near you, I know that some of the gardens in Galmpton open their gardens to the public, but as to whether they are in the NGS i can not say.
Brian was happy to answer questions from our members as long as it was not complicated questions about specific plants, and we look forward to a visit from Brian in the not too distant future.
Paignton Probus Club 