St Joseph’s Hospice: why we open for the National Garden Scheme

There are so many reasons why hospices benefit from getting involved with National Garden Scheme’s open gardens. The prestigious scheme – which in 2026 will have been supporting Hospice UK's work for 30 years, and subsequently celebrates its 100 year anniversary in 2027 – gives over 3,500 garden owners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the chance to show off their garden to the public, as part of a national garden-loving community.

And with that sort of history behind them, it means that the support they offer to open garden organisers is second to none. Jocelyn explains that first and foremost, though, it’s the cause – and the chance to be part of something bigger – that inspired the suggestion that St Joseph’s hold an open garden:

“The National Garden scheme supports charities that you benefit from as a hospice. So that's brilliant to begin with. But the decision was really championed by one of our senior nurses, who said we needed to do this because of Hospice UK's partnership – she wanted us to be a part of Hospice UK’s efforts. 

“She explained that the money collected goes towards other health charities as well, like Macmillan. Our senior management support Hospice UK, and our hospice benefits from Hospice UK. So strategically it made a lot of sense to open the garden with the National Garden Scheme.” 

Jocelyn shares that she wasn’t sure whether St Joseph’s garden would be accepted onto the National Garden Scheme’s open gardens – but was thankful she was proved wrong: 

“I said that I didn’t know if they’d take us…and that National Garden Scheme is very prestigious. But of course, they did, and that's why we opened with them.”
 

Each garden owner opening their gardens is supported by one of the National Garden Scheme’s county organisers. Jocelyn believes that it was this amazing support given to her and her team of garden volunteers that made all the difference to the success, and impact, of their open gardens:

“This was the first year we had a National Garden Scheme open garden, although we have had open gardens as part of London Open Garden Squares Weekend before – which was quite a similar thing.

“But what interested me was that the National Garden scheme has been running for a lot longer – nearly 100 years – so it's a well-oiled machine. I was able much more easily to contact them and get help and advice. 

“All of their instructions, all of their how-to checklists, how to do an open garden guide…it was just really easy with them, and I felt like there was support if you needed it. For instance, with electronic payment machines. They gave us one of those and showed us how to use it – they were really helpful.

“I just felt very supported. The local county organiser was regularly in contact, and he even had a wine and cheese event at his house to answer your questions. Like if you had any concerns about things like filling in the health and safety forms – they’ve been helping organisers for nearly 100 years so they have their own set of guidelines. They give you a big poster that says, ‘Mind your step,’ for example – so you don't have to think about all of that.”
 

Hospices’ gardens are places of peace, tranquillity and beauty – giving patients, their families and staff a quiet space to take time out to reflect, chat, or just be with one another.

But behind the scenes, there are teams of dedicated garden staff and volunteers who put tremendous amounts of time and love to keep them looking beautiful. That’s why National Garden Scheme open gardens, says Jocelyn, are actually a wonderful way to pay tribute to them:

“You get a real opportunity to say thank you to your volunteers by giving them a day where they can show off their pride and joy, and show people what they do. My volunteers are just so proud of what they do. They want people to see it, and they want people to say, ‘Gosh, it’s so marvellous that you volunteer.’ It’s really a brilliant way of rewarding them. 

“And actually, once the open gardens finish, you could sit down and have a glass of wine with them, and so it then becomes a celebration of the garden. Because they work hard and they should be properly acknowledged. It's quite nice for the head gardener or coordinator to have a specific time where they might give out long service badges or just reflect on what you’ve all achieved this year, and make it a celebration of life in the garden.”
 

Jocelyn says that holding a National Garden Scheme open garden presented some unexpected opportunities. One of these is offering local people a friendly way to visit the hospice and find out what happens at one. She explains: 

“I really think it helps the hospice open to the community. You get the opportunity to have people from the local area coming into the hospice where they wouldn't normally, because nobody voluntarily thinks, ‘oh, there's a hospice, I think I'll check it out.’

“People probably don't want to end up here, but if you do, at least you can have a little look around while you're here and get the vibe of it. Because I think people are still generally quite frightened of hospices – but these open gardens are a way we can help change that perception.

“We really enjoyed the chance to have people in to the hospice to see what it's all about. I think that's quite important, because we don't really have open days – and we don't often get people passing by and just popping in.”

Jocelyn adds that some of the open gardens visitors came along for more sentimental, emotional reasons:

“At our open gardens it was nice to be able to talk to people who had been here a lot at the hospice a long time ago, because they knew the garden from when somebody died. They would be just checking in and reminiscing. That was quite nice, being able to say to them, ‘if you ever want to sit here again, just come in, sign in and sit in the garden, because we encourage that.’ People also give us plants, and so they like to check that they’re still there and being looked after!”

For Jocelyn, being involved with a National Garden Scheme open gardens gave her the opportunity to reach out to fellow open gardens organisers – and do her own outreach and myth-busting:

“I was actually encouraged by the National Garden Scheme to go out and look around other people's gardens. And when I mentioned that I was from a hospice garden, they’d say, ‘Oh, it's you that does that!’ So that enabled me to do a bit of missionary work that way, and say, ‘yes – and you should come to see it.’ So that was inspiring.

Jocelyn says that being part of a national scheme brought personal benefits with it:

“One of the reasons I would do an open gardens is to make contact with other local gardens and see if they're doing it. With the National Garden scheme, there were more local events for local head gardeners or people who are opening their gardens.”
 

With the opportunity to reach new audiences both locally and nationally, a National Garden Scheme open gardens brings with it the potential to plant the seed of new relationships – whether for one-off donations, regular givers or even gifts in wills.

“You get the opportunity to have people from the local area coming into the hospice where they wouldn't normally.”

On top of the potential to fundraise, Jocelyn explains that the hospice had the opportunity to convert visitors in a different way: into new volunteers.

“What you're saying to visitors on the day might actually inspire them to volunteer as well. They might think, ‘I haven't got a connection with this, but this might be a nice place to volunteer. I could do this.’ I thought that was really nice.”

And whilst St Joseph’s decided against offering tea and cake at their initial open garden, Jocelyn adds that with hindsight, this would have gone down particularly well – but they wanted to start out small, and low key, to take the pressure off their first foray into the open gardens scheme.

Along with their plant sale, it’s a great opportunity for earning further income, which the hospice would keep. The good news for next year’s open garden visitors to St Joseph’s is that Jocelyn is planning on recruiting some extra volunteers to keep the refreshments in plentiful supply!
 

Each year, the National Garden Scheme produces its ‘Garden Visitor’s Handbook,’ which is sold in major bookstores, and distributed to over 30,000 people. It was the prospect of being featured in this – and in their interactive ‘Find a Garden’ map – that Jocelyn says swayed them into joining the National Garden Scheme open gardens:

“Everyone’s heard of the ‘Little Yellow Book’, and that places you in front of so many more people nationally than you’d get with a local open gardens. My local friends – especially the ones who love gardens – all knew what it was as soon as I mentioned the National Garden Scheme. 

“What I love is that this is a national scheme, and covers everyone. So you’re getting listed alongside not just other gardens in your area, but thousands of gardens around the country. If you look through the book, there are other hospices in there too. 

“It’s such a great time to be thinking about opening a garden for the National Garden Scheme, as the 100 year anniversary will be in 2027 – and there will be a lot of publicity happening around open gardens then. Hospices who do open their gardens will really be able to make the most of that.”