People can enjoy exclusive access to several private gardens this month as part of the The National Garden Scheme, (NGS), in partnership with the Queen’s Nursing Institute.
Government House in Guernsey, Le Grand Dixcart in Sark, as well as three private homes within the Bailiwick will allow residents and tourists into their gardens, as well as serving tea and cake, to raise money for nursing and medical charities in the island and the UK.
The scheme was introduced to Guernsey through the island’s Queen’s Nurses, including Alison Carney who is a Diabetes Nurse Specialist.
She explained that Open gardens has been running for five years now, and is becoming more known every year; “It’s really just been via publicity and word of mouth that other people have approached us. Now we have three gardens on the waiting list for 2026.”
Ms Carney said the idea of bringing Open Gardens to Guernsey started by chatting with local horticulturalist Raymond Evison, who grows award winning Clematis;
“We had some key meetings and he put us in touch with several people he knew personally who have nice gardens,” she said.
“There’s a variety of different types of gardens that people open up to the public. Sark, for example, is dedicated to provide vegetables for the hotel, so it’s very much a functional garden. Next year, we’ve got a hotel that is interested and also the Camp de Rêves in St Peters.”
The Express spoke to Ms Carney, in the private garden of Mrs Liz Harrison-Beck, who owns La Croute de Bas Garden.
Her garden is a not only a floral garden, but also has an orchard and sustainable Christmas tree patch that the owners Liz and Mike Smith have been cultivating for a few years;
“It’s my first year and I’ve spent most of the winter sorting it all out. I like to think of it as an artists palette, so I put colours together, and do it that way to work out where the flowers are…we have hydrangea, fox gloves, peonies, fig trees and a Japanese broom tree.”
The front of the house, overlooking the road also has a growing orchard, as well as a patch for Christmas spruce trees.
Mr Smith explained that him and his wife, bought the little window sill trees, when the garden centres were selling them more cheaply post Christmas explaining:
“For every tree we plant, the carbon off set, and what it absorbs, allows us to keep the oil heating on.”
“We planted them and they’ve grown really well. We’re growing them as part of our efforts for sustainability. We thought we could dig them, and get the root balls out, send them off to people’s houses, they put them up, then bring them back, and we’ll replant them. That way you can use them another year.”
The range of gardens, which collectively offer glasshouses, walled gardens, allotments, ponds, sculptures and more, will open over two weekends.
In Sark, on the 7 and 8 June, access will be open for Le Grand Dixcart, La Seigneurie and La Tour, and then in Guernsey, on the 14 and 15 June, which will showcase Highfields in St Andrews, Les Vieilles Salines in St Sampson, and La Croute De Bas in St Andrews.
Home-made tea and cakes are available with ticket costs at £4 for adults and £2 for children. The full is available online on the NGS website HERE.
