Beautiful private gardens go public in England, Wales (Letter from London)
London |Monday, 2009 2:05:06 PM IST
 

At least 3,600 homestead owners in England and Wales are busy giving the finishing touches to their gardens, with a few already open to the public and others set to do so next month.

The British passion for gardening is in full display at these homesteads, which have the backing of the National Garden Scheme (NGS), supported by its patron Prince Charles. Despite the economic downturn and the vagaries of summer, NGS is attracting a lot of people.

"The gardens are checked by our volunteers who operate in each county in England and Wales to ensure that visitor safety is not compromised and that the garden is well maintained," Chris Morley, marketing communications manager of NGS, told IANS.

The garden owners can open the doors to the public according to their convenience for a day or two.

One such owner who is excited is 47-year-old David Bryson who was spotted standing on top of an elevated wooden platform showing off an array of exotic plants that dangle from a pole at his back garden, his face brimming with pride.

The Brysons live at the Northwood Hills of Hillingdon Borough and are eager to throw open their garden to the public Sep 6.

Strange as it may seem, they have a banana plant that has been giving yields for the last two decades. Different varieties of cacti also thrive at the Brysons home in northwest London.

Banana plants usually grow in tropical and subtropical climate. This gives the feeling that the Brysons have a green thumb. But growing bananas in the garden even during winter when the temperature comes to subzero is nothing new to Bryson.

"Years of research have helped me to find out which all plants can thrive well in my garden, be it summer or winter," Bryson, a freelance landscapist, told IANS.

His garden consists of an unusual collection of exotic, Australasian plants, palm trees and ferns which have been set in an original design. It can make an unlucky gardener go green with envy.

Bryson says teaming up with NGS gives him an opportunity to work for a noble cause.

Admission to NGS gardens comes for less than three pounds and in most cases children under 16 are admitted free. Over the past 10 years, the NGS has raised over 25 million pounds for charity from its gate collection.

Last year NGS donated over two million pounds to various beneficiaries.

The history of NGS dates back to 1927. Its objective was for people to open their gardens to raise money to help support the work of district nurses. Today it acts as one of the biggest fundraisers for charitable activities.

Morley said: "Our main beneficiary charities are MacMillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Help the Hospices, and the Crossroads Caring for Carers. We are MacMillan Cancer Support's biggest single annual donor with half a million pounds being given."

Anyone who is interested can go and see these gardens as they are publicised through fliers provided by NGS. People also get to know of them by word of mouth.

Shanthee Siva, 49, who is of Malaysian origin, is another garden owner. The Surrey resident's garden symbolises a tropical theme with different varieties of palms, cannas, castor oil plant and bananas, mainly with a brown colour scheme.

She was surprised after 158 people turned up to see her garden that opened a few days ago. "It gave me an opportunity to get an idea on their opinion of my garden as most of the visitors were themselves gardeners," Siva said.

A woman visitor who came to see Shanthee Siva's garden said, "I did not expect to see such a variety of plants and all of them were thriving."

Many garden owners provide homemade cakes and typical British tea to visitors. Some owners sell plants and the money generated again goes into charity.

NGS is growing by the day as more and more people have begun opening their home gardens to the public.

(Cynthia Chandran can be contacted on cynthiachandran@gmail.com)

cc/pg/ky

( 691 Words)

2009-08-17-13:05:27 (IANS)

 

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