On Wednesday we replaced our Hats, Gloves, Scarves and Muddy Boots with our ‘Wednesday Best’ to attend the Worcestershire County National Garden Scheme AGM and lunch. ( This being a charity, garden owners have to pay for their lunch).
With the Chief Executive, George Plumptre, of the NGS in attendance, Our County Chairman, David Morgan presented an impressive report for the year.
Worcestershire NGS raised a total of £74,261.34 direct from garden owners opening during 2017, with a net total of £79,823.28, including advertising and donations. Nationally, the NGS donated over £3million to beneficiaries in 2017. You can see which charities benefit from this by visiting the NGS website Here
Before lunch we were entertained and informed by Darren Rudge, BBC local radio gardening expert on ‘Tea bags, bra’s and tights, – household items that can make gardening more cost effective!”
Following the AGM and lunch, we all collected our advertising material for the year, posters, direction arrows and signs to put around the garden.
County booklets are distributed around various garden centres, shops, tourist offices and any venue where the public can accesses them.
The Garden Visitor’s Handbook 2018, which covers all N.G.S. open gardens in England and Wales, is available from the NGS website. It makes an ideal companion for the holidaying gardener.
The Hats, Gloves, Scarves and Muddy Boots were back on the next day, we have a deadline to meet!
Do you visit gardens when you are on holiday?
brimfields.com 
This is such a lovely scheme. I like the way you have a combined entry fee for several gardens. I would love to have the opportunity to visit gardens and chat to keen gardeners. Amelia
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Sounds like your garb is similar to ours minus the Sunday best!
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I’ve visited lots of gardens in England, but keep thinking I’ll go back just to do some NGS visits someday. The problem is picking an area! There are so many great places to choose!
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Oh, you must visit Worcestershire Carolee! Thank you for visiting my blog.
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Is there a difference between ‘muddy’ and ‘best’?
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Definitely!
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My boots are outfitted with the best mud.
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Our lunch is a week on Sunday, Brian – we won’t be the newbies this time! You don’t think that George Plumptre goes to every County event do you? Not sure if he is due at ours this time or not
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Hi Cathy, I know he tries to attend as many as possible. I don’t know if our CO invited him. Two other staff members from HO came as well.
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I’d be no good at these lunch things. My Anyday best is a clean pair of jeans. My one-and-only suit only does funerals! 😉 So far I’ve managed to visit gardens without coming away with any free children though I’m always impressed with the quality of plants on sale. There’s a little bit of me, though, that wishes someone would beat into garden openers that they don’t have to nearly kill themselves to present a pristine garden. I prefer “natural”, “as it usually is”. Imperfections and all. I want to see a garden, not a Monet painting of one. I like relaxed gardeners who will chat about plants, not apologise for something that was better last week.
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Dress is really very casual at our lunch. The TV programme with Carol Kline a few years ago about the NGS gave a very distorted view of preparing to open for the NGS. The NGS, I think regret the making of the programme because it put off garden owners from approaching them with a view to opening. While a certain standard of horticulture is required a lot depends on the approach of the County Organiser.
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A wonderful scheme, always great to nose about other people’s gardens and at the same time raise money for great charities. Keep up the good work!
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Thank you Gill, we try to.
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Brian, it’s exciting to think of so many gardeners opening up their gardens for charity. Must take a lot of organization to keep this going. My local Chapel Hill Garden Club is sponsoring a tour of gardens the last week of April. We manage it every two years and it it quite an effort, but always fun. The proceeds mostly go to support of North Carolina Botanical Garden. Visiting gardens is one of the highlights of traveling.
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It is a privilege to have a garden and we enjoy sharing it with others.
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Fingers crossed that there’s no need for hats, scarfs, gloves or muddy boots when the Hanley Swan Gardens open Brian. It must be exciting to pick up all the advertising material. We really enjoy visiting NGS open gardens when we are on holiday especially those that have a good plant stall.
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You are always welcome to visit Anna.
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Hi Brian just popped over to see your blog after your comment today on mine – what a lovely garden – visiting open gardens is my favourite hobby when I have time – Worcestershire is a bit far for us but you never know if we are passing sometime we will see if you are open – until then I will enjoy reading your blog. Viv
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Visitors are always welcome if we are home. Thank you for visiting the blog.
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