“Just do it!” Open gardens at Shooting Star Children’s Hospices

Lucy Hooper is Shooting Star’s Social Media and Web Content Officer. In her role at the hospice, which has two sites - one in Guildford, Surrey and one in Hampton, West London - she’s been instrumental in getting her colleagues on board with opening their beautiful gardens for the National Garden Scheme. She tells us how – and why – the hospice decided to take part.

There is a serendipitous background to Shooting Star's National Garden Scheme open gardens: Lucy, who leads on the event, used to work at the National Garden Scheme. When she joined, she was determined to bring her wealth of knowledge about the scheme to the hospice so that they could reap the rewards from the many benefits of the prestigious open gardens.

Lucy explains how the reaction to her idea was really well received by colleagues around the hospice:

“Before COVID, we’d had the occasional open day – but the idea of opening the garden had never really come up. The Marketing team were happy to do it, and a hospice care colleague who loved her gardening was very keen that we should get involved too. 

“Our volunteer gardening team were also naturally really supportive, as it would allow them to show off the hard work that they put in throughout the year.”

The stage was set: Shooting Star opened their garden for the first time in August 2023.
 

We asked Lucy why she wanted to bring open gardens to Shooting Star, and how she pitched her idea. She explains that one reason in particular really resonated with her colleagues:

“I felt it was important to invite the local community in. Our Guildford site is sort of tucked away, and I think although a lot of the people who live locally have heard of us, they don't necessarily know much more about us beyond our name. 

“My thinking was that by inviting them into the hospice garden, it would give them a chance to come and see what we do. The gardens here are so beautiful and just by being in them, you can get a good understanding of what a hospice is. A lot of people might find the word ‘hospice’ quite scary – especially in the context of children’s hospice care – so inviting the public in helps to break down those myths. 

“The awareness raising aspect is so important to us. And although we’ve never pitched our open gardens as a fundraiser, it does help build our supporter base. It's a low pressure environment to pop in and people can stay for as long as they like. It’s a really nice way to lightly introduce people to what a hospice setting is.”

Lucy adds that the hospice sees an even split between visitors who have heard of Shooting Star, and those who come along because they’ve found the hospice’s open gardens in the National Garden Scheme Gardens to Visit Handbook or Find a Garden map:

“It’s brilliant…you have two different subsets of supporters coming together. It’s really nice when visitors say, ‘I’ve not heard of you, but I saw your open garden in the [Gardens Visitor's] book and wanted to come see what it was about.” 
 

Like Shooting Star, you may not have thought about the possibility – or benefits – of simply opening your gardens to the public. Lucy explains how, as a children’s hospice, they ensured patient safety:

“Letting the public in through the gates into what is a clinical setting certainly has the potential to feel risky! 

“As a children’s hospice, we do have quite different risks to consider, compared to an adult hospice. 

“The great thing about National Garden Scheme open gardens is that you can have a pre-booking system if you want. And just by making sure that we had all the relevant doors and access points secured meant that nobody was able to accidentally stray onto a ward.

“We're always very sensitive to our patients’ needs. We have a memory garden and bereavement suites, so our clinical members of staff monitor those and make sure that no one's being inappropriate or loud around those spaces.

“We know of other children’s hospices who do their open garden as a fun day. That’s quite different to ours – but it shows how open gardens can be done in whatever ways suits each individual hospice.”
 

For all of the 3,500+ garden owners taking part in the open gardens, any entry ticket income is passed on to the National Garden Scheme, to be distributed between their health and nursing charity beneficiaries – including Hospice UK. The generous support from National Garden Scheme helps Hospice UK continue to advocate for hospices in policy and campaigning spaces, fighting for fairer funding for the sector. 

We asked Lucy whether there had been any concerns about holding an open garden, given that the ticket sales are then donated to the National Garden Scheme:

“Of course, it’s a natural question to ask: should we just open our garden ourselves? I really believe that having the National Garden Scheme name attached to the opening is a much better idea because you get all the extra promotion from the National Garden Scheme – and you get so many of their supporters coming along because of it. You would miss out on such a huge audience if you didn't have that on your side.
 

“What’s interesting,” adds Lucy, “is the demographic of our open garden visitors. We see a lot of people coming from the National Garden Scheme who are retired and have a bit more time. That’s really helpful from a fundraising point of view because we can speak to a new audience about the work that we do. 

“It works really nicely, because it brings a whole new demographic to us that we maybe wouldn't otherwise engage with. They might not have social media, but here, we can have a face-to-face chat.”
 

An open garden is a great chance to come up with fun and interesting ways of raising money on the day. Along with selling hot drinks and cake (always a favourite at open gardens) at Shooting Star, fundraising on the day includes a ‘Stars in the Jar’ game – allowing them to collect email addresses in return for an entry. And one nice bonus from their open gardens, says Lucy, is that it’s been a great way for people to sign up to volunteer for the hospice.

“It's a very low cost event for what you get back – that’s so helpful for us at the hospice. It’s low cost, maximum reward. Not only are you helping yourselves with fundraising, but you're also contributing to the National Garden Scheme and all the great charities that they support. So from one small event, you're really helping the much wider picture.

“Open gardens are such a great opportunity to welcome your local community and help break down any stigmas about hospice care. What’s also nice is that it gives people the chance to come back who may have used the hospice, or had a family member that has been there before. They can come back in a safe, relaxed way, which is really nice.

“And what could be more iconic,” adds Lucy, “than being in the little yellow book!”
 

A National Garden Scheme open garden is, says Lucy, a genuinely lovely opportunity for everyone at the hospice to join together. 2025’s event at Shooting Star featured a starring role from a very special colleague:

“Our Lead Nurse came along and spoke to a lot of the visitors. She was there to answer any questions that people had, which was just so nice – and really helpful because people do have questions about the hospice and the care that we provide.

“It’s really nice for the public to actually see the children we support, first-hand, and one of our clinical members of staff. Ask her anything – she will answer it!

“Our 2025 open garden was definitely a lot more collaborative, and was a big community effort. Our Chief Executive, Paul Farthing, was incredibly supportive, and in 2024 we were joined by the Mayor of Guildford, which was fantastic.”
 

With a team of 8 garden volunteers working diligently all year round to keep the gardens at the hospice's Christopher's site in Guildford to a high standard, Lucy explains that an open garden allows them an opportunity to feel proud of, and showcase, their hard work – and passion – for what they do. 

“Our garden volunteers have all been so happy that we've been able to have these open gardens, and that their hard work gets shared more widely. They've all been very proud of the work that they've put into it – it’s such a nice opportunity for them.

“We've had volunteers who have come along on the day to show their friends and family the work that they’ve done in the garden, which is really nice. 

“Our head gardener is there too, to answer any planting questions."
 

We asked Lucy whether she had any tips or advice to hospices who were thinking about holding an open garden. It is, she adds, an event which you can start off as small – or as big – as you like:

“I’d say to other hospices to open your garden and just go for it in your first year! You don’t have to make it incredible, or put on a huge fun fair. Just open the garden because people do want to know more about what you do. You can build it from there. 

“I think that's the best way of doing it because you get to learn on the job and make it bigger and better every year. That’s what we’ve seen here: we’re proof that you can make it bigger and better every year. 

“Let people in. You can't really lose much – you can only gain. So that would be my best advice: just do it.”

Thank you to Lucy and Shooting Star Children’s Hospices for sharing their experience of joining National Garden Scheme's open gardens.
 

Now is a great time to get involved with the National Garden Scheme. 

In 2026, Hospice UK celebrates 30 years of generous support from the National Garden Scheme, and we plan to go big on our communications and marketing for the partnership. 

That means that we'll be creating news stories, films and social content featuring our member hospices who hold open gardens - and your hospice can be a part of that by registering for one.

If you'd like to get involved, there are some important deadlines to be aware of:

• If you've previously opened your garden for the National Garden Scheme, you'll need to contact your County Organiser to register by Wednesday 1st October with the date/s for your proposed opening in 2026.
• If you've not previously opened your garden for the National Garden Scheme, you'll first need to contact your County Organiser to arrange a visit to ensure the garden is suitable to open for the Scheme. You'll then need to complete your registration by 1st October.
   

2027 open gardens

In 2027, the National Garden Scheme will mark its 100 year anniversary, and we'll be supporting a huge media and communications push on celebrating the organisation - and the people that make the National Garden Scheme what it is. 

You can benefit from prestigious national publicity by making sure that your hospice registers for an open garden. Find out how, below.