Our History
The National Gardens Scheme was founded in 1927 to raise money for
the nurses of the Queen’s Nursing
Institute (QNI) by opening gardens of quality and interest to the public.
At that time garden visiting was already a well established pastime (as seen in Pride and Prejudice), but only for a privileged few. The simple, but radical idea behind the NGS was to ask individuals to open their private gardens to the public for 'a shilling a head'. In the first year 609 gardens opened and raised over £8,000. The overwhelming success of these openings ensured that they became a regular feature of the fund raising activity of the QNI. A network of volunteer County Organisers was set up. By 1931 over 1,000 private gardens were open. Country Life magazine produced a handbook, known as "The Yellow Book" because of its bright cover.
After the Second World War, the National Health Service took on the District Nursing Service, but extra money was still needed to care for retired nurses and invest in training so the NGS continued as before. In 1948 the Scheme offered support to a National Trust project to restore and preserve important gardens. In return the National Trust opened many of its most prestigious gardens for the NGS.
Despite massive inflation in the post-war years, the entrance fee was held at one shilling. After a great deal of persuasion during the 1960s and 1970s, more realistic entrance fees were introduced and the gardens began to raise significant amounts in donations.
In 1980 The National Gardens Scheme Charitable Trust was established as an independent charity, with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother as Patron and Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester as President. In 1984 Macmillan Cancer Relief joined the list of charities benefiting from donations. In the years that followed other charities joined this list to benefit from the monies raised by the NGS. In 1986 'Gardeners Sunday' merged with the NGS which now supports the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society and the Royal Gardeners' Orphans Fund.
Increasing donations during the 1990s enabled the NGS to add: Marie Curie Cancer Care, Help the Hospices and Crossroads Caring for Carers to its list of beneficiaries. Over the years the gardens have changed in size and style and we now have thousands of smaller gardens,. However, it is a tribute to the loyalty and generosity of our supporters that, in 2002 almost 100 of the 'Pioneer' gardens were open for us.