Naomi Cryer was one of hundreds of people across the country who opened their gardens for the National Gardens Scheme Festival Weekend on 15-16 June, to raise money for Macmillan and other charities.
Here, Naomi tells us why she decided to take part – and how it feels to let crowds of strangers into your garden for the day.
This was the first time I’ve opened my garden under the National Garden Scheme. It’s a dream that I’ve had for some years. When my husband and I looked at our house for the first time, we stood in the orchard on a beautiful September day and he told me then that if we managed to buy the property he would like to open it under the NGS scheme one day. We were successful at the auction and it became our home. We renovated the cottage, while keeping about half the garden up together and developing it in our style.
Then, in the winter of 2008 we sat down and drew up a plan for the other half of the garden. We thought it would be good to have an overall vision, even if it took a few years to compete it all. Sadly, and tragically for Mike he did not live to see that. He died very suddenly in April 2009.
When I was sorting out papers the following year, I came across the plan we had made and decided that I would continue the project and try to get the garden accepted into the scheme. That started two years of hard but rewarding work.
I now have a garden of about an acre, built round what used to be an orchard and working garden. It has a mixture of borders and beds which are mostly herbaceous plants. There is a golden bed, grass bed, hot border, two long borders filled with mauve and white plants, including a couple of hundred dahlias. There is a small parterre, which is populated with hot coloured plants, and a wildlife pond. I also planted a small wildlife meadow, which is at its best in June.
It was an honour to be accepted into the scheme. You have to meet a variety of criteria to be accepted and I thought that I would be given a number of things to do in order to be accepted. Imagine my delight when, unusually for them, the judges said that I could have opened my garden the next day if I wanted to! Mike would have been so pleased if he were here.
I was so lucky that numerous friends, relatives and neighbours offered help in making cakes and selling them with tea on the day. My lovely sisters-in-law also both offered their help - one of them propagated an enormous volume of plants for me to sell and the other one came along and spent two days selling them.
People paid £3.50 to see the garden, plus extra for the tea, cakes and plants. In total, 201 people visited the garden, and we raised £1309.43. I was really stunned when we counted the money up at the end. The weather had not been brilliant, windy and showery all weekend, but still the great British public came, saw and spent! Altogether a great achievement, I think.
Mike and I have always enjoyed visiting open gardens and think it is a great idea: people sharing their gardens with other like-minded people and making money for charity at the same time. What could be better?
It was an enormous amount of work and quite a lot of organisation but neither faze me particularly so I would happily do to again - indeed I am already considering what dates I might be able to do next year!
Find out more about the National Gardens Scheme.
