Be part of history: open your garden in 2027

Typically, a garden should have at least 40 minutes of ‘interest’ to be eligible for the open gardens scheme. If you have a small space, it might still fit the bill, especially if you are growing lots of pots, climbers, or have lots of specialist or unusual plants.

If you don’t feel this is the case, you could get some of your neighbours or nearby friends on board and open as a community garden – read on for more details.
 

Essentially, this is where you club together with some neighbours, or others in your community or village for instance, and open your gardens on the same day. 

This is particularly helpful if your garden is on the smaller side, or if you want to share the responsibilities on the day between several people.

For example, visitors would buy one ticket to get access to all the open gardens in your community; one of you could handle refreshments; another could take care of tickets.

The application process would still be the same as opening as an individual garden – your local County Organiser will be able to tell you more.
 

No, it’s free to register and hold an open garden event for the National Garden Scheme.

It’s natural for any garden owner to think that their garden is looking a bit scruffy. The good news is that once your application is submitted in early autumn 2026, you’ll have many months (including autumn, winter and spring) to plan how you want your garden to look, depending on which season you’ll be opening in. 

Garden visitors are used to all styles of garden, and are very aware that homeowners don’t typically tend to be garden designers or professional gardeners.
 

That was certainly more true at the National Garden Scheme’s formation in 1927 – when early champions included Sir Winston Churchill and other stately homeowners. But now, it’s about showing the breadth and variety of gardens around the country: each year, over 3,300 garden owners open theirs to the public – of all shapes and sizes.

Many open garden owners report that they felt the same before they submitted an application for the scheme. It might just be a matter of self-confidence – you’ll discover that visitors will be genuinely curious about your garden and finding out what you’ve planted.

Absolutely – it doesn’t matter where in England, Wales or the Channel Islands you live, people will come. Open gardens can be found anywhere from inner cities (for instance, at St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney) to coastal hideouts and remote moorland. Garden fans do not fear travel if there is a nice garden (and piece of cake) on offer at the end of their journey.

National Garden Scheme make sure that all garden owners are supported from start to finish. That might involve anything from getting your information into the Yellow Book; to helping with setting you up for ticket sales; and preparing your garden with a risk assessment and signage.
 

Yes you can. In fact, they can work really well alongside each other: you could have them on consecutive days – or hold a National Garden Scheme open garden in a separate part of the season (for instance, if your existing open garden is in June, why not consider your NGS open garden in spring, for early summer interest, or early autumn for the changing of the seasons?)

Your experience with running an existing open garden event will be a great help, as you’ll be familiar with how it works, how to provide teas and coffees, and where people should park, among other things!
 

Typically, your gate receipts (ticket sales) are donated to the National Garden Scheme, and then disbursed by them to all the beneficiary charities. Many garden owners sell homemade refreshments, plants and other produce on the day.

It might feel that way, but because the event preparation takes place over many months, it’s nicely spread out – and hopefully you won’t feel any pressure. 

Once you’ve had your application accepted, decided on a date, and submitted your garden details to National Garden Scheme, you’ll be helped through the process of event preparation by your County Organiser; your biggest task is to plan how you’ll get your garden looking how you want it to!
 

For almost 100 years the National Garden Scheme has opened beautiful gardens for charity offering visitors access to 3,300 private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, raising money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake.

Unfortunately, open gardens are not eligible to take place in Scotland.