Have you ever had an 'open garden'?

[Guest]

Just wondering if anyone has ever opened there garden to the public. How did it go? What advice would you give to anyone thinking about it?

Thanks as always

[ecudc]

No but there is an official national gardens scheme called the yellow book who if you were thinking of it would come round and advise. They are the most stringent and so might not be for you but would give good advise. Normally things you would need to think about are:

Do you have a garden that could keep people interested for say half an hour plus. If not could you have other things on like teas, raffle, Pimms

Health and safety - you might need to rope off high areas, steep slopes. Fix rocking steps, cover the ends of canes. Rope off area you don't want people to go like in to the green house.

Do you need to guide people around with a map or signs.

Choose the best time of year for your garden. Do you need to put in some annuals to fill some gaps.

You may have to rope in your friends, relatives, neighbours to weed, weed weed for the week before.

You may need to put more effort in early in the year to get lawns perfect, beds looking good, raising plants for sale, than you normally would. Get some friends to give you honest assessments of week spots and how much you should charge. Are you going to give the money to charity?

Marketing. How are you going to spread the word. Could you persuade others near you to open their gardens too to make it more attractive for people to come and share costs. The swerford weekend attracts about 1000 people and they only do it about once every three years as it is a lot to organise. https://www.khh.org.uk/Event/open-gardens-swerford

[veggiechicken]

I was asked to but chickened out! It would have been as part of a village open gardens day but I've seen how much effort people put into getting their garden looking immaculate for the day - and I couldn't do that
Their open day is next weekend and there'll be about 25 gardens of all sizes from terraced houses to farms. People sell teas/wine, cakes, plants and raffle tickets - all funds raised go to the village lifeboat which is not RNLI so has to raise all its own funds. This is their major fundraising event.
A friend joined her garden with 2 other local ones to open for the NGS. They were normal sized suburban gardens and the NGS thought they needed 3 of them to be interesting. One did teas, one sold books and one had toilets - all in aid of Motor Neurone disease. I helped her on the day as you need a couple of people who know the garden, can explain what's what and can do a bit of crowd control - where there's only one way in/out.
Good luck if you decide to do it - I'm sure your garden is beautiful and, if I lived nearer, I'd come for a stickybeak

[Small pumpkin]

A few people have said I should do an open day in my veggie patch.
NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN
Don't get me wrong I love my veggie patch, and I'm very proud of it.
I'll more than happily show anyone round that is interested. I'm just to bl@@dy unsociable to have lots of people ( by lots, I'm talking 4+ ) walking round my bit of paradise, without one on one supervision! The supervision is usually in the form of the other half , because as already mentioned I'm to bl@@dy unsociable ( and I'm getting worse )

Want lots of photos when you do yours NG

[Guest]

Thanks all. It is only something that plays on my mind now and then and wouldn't be til next year, possibly the year after (maybe even the year after that ). One of my fears is I am not a highly polished type of a person, also I tend to be a one women show. It was looking at NGS that made me think but it is the usual one sided it is great, wonderful and everyone should do it that made me ask.

SP there is no need to worry about anti-social it tends to spread. As my Hubby drove upto the house today he said I should grow more grape vines on the front of the house to spell something. The one there at the moment is an 'F', you can guess my suggestion. I later went on to say I could do some topiary on the other side of the drive that spelt 'off'. Nothing like being anti-social

Edit: I think grapes should do virtual open gardens. What ya reckon? This time next year, if I don't do a real one I will do a virtual if someone reminds me

[veggiechicken]

An open day might be a good way to promote your flower farm - refreshments and a posy on offer?
I've visited lots of different gardens on open days but I've never been to one as shambolic as mine! You're all welcome to come and laugh at it, 'cos you know what to expect but I wouldn't like strangers to wander round, pointing at the weeds and sniggering afterwards.
Its different with friends

[lottie dolly]

sounds like a good idea NG,gardens comes in all manner of so called presentability,there will be peeps come round and think,thank the lord for a normal garden,not a polished estate,i think the main things are,friendly,able to answer any questions,drinks and home made cake,a little quiz for kids as they go around with the parents,have some things for sale,plants,flowers,eggs,1 we went to a few year ago even had some car boot stuff,another place we got talking about allotements and onions,it's all about keeping them interested,a bit like a mild carnival,if peeps enjoy the experience you done a good job,plus what a good way to show off what you have done,and present your future proposed business.

[Jungle Jane]

If people visited my garden they'd have to walk in single file to the middle of the lawn,stand still & look then get back into the line to get out! I like the idea though & you're quite near I could probably come & have a nosey & help you with making cups of tea,don't ever worry about what type of person you are,if everyone was the same it would be a nightmare,the day will give you confidence,I can imagine it would be great because it's you & your plants & it will impress everyone. If someone asks you something you can't answer just do what the government does,totally ignore the question & talk about anything you want

[Guest]

Bless, you lot are brilliant

Love the idea of the childrens quiz - it hadn't even crossed my mind.

[veggiechicken]

Treasure hunts are quite good for kids too. You hide summat daft and they have to find it and write down where it is.

[Bren In Pots]

My sister in law used to open her garden said it worked out well and she met lots of like minded people, her tip was to have lots of mug/ cups handy.

[goosander]

Opened ours a few years back. Most people were more interested in the plants. Had a plant stall with plants from a friendly nursery on a sell or take back. Sold several hundred pounds worth but the person in charge was wanting me to sell her plants which were rubbish. Working at the time so had my reputation to think about.
Part of Scotland's Garden open days.
Quite enjoyed it but my wife was delighted. All the jobs I had been going to do were done.
Bob

[TheMidnightGrower]

In my area, there are many local 'unofficial' groups, such as villages or city zones, who do open garden days. Visits have ranged from wanders around overgrown orchards with a few grassy paths recently cut to tiny 'yard gardens' only 4m or so long and wide, with just 1 or 2 fantastic plants in a clever design. There is no need at all for a garden to be either big, time consuming to maintain or full of expensive or rare plants for it t0 be very interesting to visit and view. I hate garden snobbery.

I much prefer these events to the yellow book schemes. The yellow schemes I have visited seem mostly to be examples of large gardens unaffordable in time and money to most gardeners. I also saw a documentary some while back where the yellow book committee came around to select 'suitable' gardens for inclusion in open days. I was quite shocked by the snobbery and pettiness of the committee and have never bothered to go to any of thier open days since as I have no interest in supporting snobbery over good gardening.

Small local groups or individuals who do their own opening for a favourite charity are so much nicer to support and the garden owners frequently tend to be nicer as well.

[veggiechicken]

MidnightGrower, I think you're being a bit harsh about people who open their garden for the yellow book schemes. I've been to several normal sized suburban gardens that have been opened in order to raise money for the owner's favourite charities.
I've never met a snobbish garden owner yet

[Guest]

I don't know about the yellow book scheme, but I will always remember a village event I done where there were several pretentious garden owners. Yes 'owners', it turned out they actually had gardeners and what I would call fair size gardens certainly not big. It takes all sorts but regardless it was good they opened their gardens and I am sure others took something away from them.

Just to clear things up. I think most who know me know I have space. At the front is a mixed orchard of a dozen trees. On the other side of the drive (enough to park three cars nothing glamourous in fact it needs redoing) is the main paddock with a buddleia hedge along the drive. On one length is a forgers hedge. At the front is a diddy wildlife (not really working) meadow. Then in the back is the girls lawn (still a work in progress it is actually gravel mud molehill land as it used to be part of the drive) There is also a Belgian lattice fence to go in. You then go round to the patio, then round past gh1, nursery corner, some more fruit trees, gh2, then the pond area with rockery type border. You can go round and down the side of the garage/workshop into the veg patch. At the very bottom is a tiny odd bit I call fairy land. There is a gate at the side of the veg patch that will take you to the cutting garden (a work in progress) and past the pig pen at the back of the garage/workshop. Going through the cutting patch you come to a mature ash and if you go through the gate by the ash will take you back to the girls lawn. However if you had gone straight you would be at the main paddock and warned off by Arnie (my not welcoming goose).

Basically size isn't an issue. Being a young (little to no flowers or interest when I moved in 5 years ago) garden - yes, being a one woman show - yes, not having a shiny polished prestine garden - hell yes!

Edit: If there are others reading the thread with small gardens then don't be put off. I have found some smaller gardens really creative/imaginative and can be really quite intimate as well, something that is often lost on larger gardens. It might be a case of teaming up with one or two others to give more for peeps to look at.