Speaker for 25th April 2017
Coleraine Probus and the National Garden Scheme
The members of Coleraine Probus were taken on a tour of some beautiful English gardens when Keith Brown came along to the club to talk about the 'National Garden Scheme'. Keith is well known to many of the club members through his leading role in the Causeway U3A, but it was a little surprising to learn that he had been working away from Northern Ireland for over 40 years before retiring and returning home. During the years away, Keith had worked in several high tech companies and gained very senior positions. This inevitably gave him the opportunity to meet and get to know a number of famous (and infamous!) company 'celebrities' - the originator of 'Lego'; the head of 'Nokia'; the designer of the 'Black and Decker Workbench' as well as Robert Maxwell and Asil Nadir.
During his working life Keith extended his recreational interest in gardening, and when he took an early retirement from his company, he wanted to find something that combined his garden passion with a charity that didn't take a large percentage of the money raised for 'running costs'. The 'National Garden Scheme' (NGS) ticked all the boxes - 'gardens', his own and other peoples; large donations to essential charities and only 8p in the pound for admin.
(To 'visit' some more gardens and flowers, 'Click' the image above)
Keith gave the members a brief history of the NGS which had its origins in the need to help, train and pay for district nurses. These were seen as charity funded workers long before the National Health Service was dreamt of. Miss Elsie Wagg, came up with the idea of raising money for the charity through the nation’s obsession with gardening, by asking people to open their gardens to visitors and charging a modest entry fee that would be donated to pay the nurses. In 1927 the National Garden Scheme was founded. Individuals were asked to open up their gardens for 'a shilling a head'. In the first year 609 gardens raised over £8,000. In March this year the NGS gave to various charities (see below) the collections from the 2016 opening of over 3800 gardens - it totalled £3,000,000.
The NGS is organised by counties in England, and Keith was chair of the Warwickshire section - very much the 'Heart of England' with some notable properties and spectacular gardens. When the scheme came to celebrate it's 85th anniversary in 2012, the Warwickshire section managed to get the help of the Charlecorte Mannor estate (above) to hold '20s style garden party and had Judi Dench as guest of honour. Although the weather wasn't the kindest on the day, there was a huge turnout of garden lovers and NGS supporters.
Keith finished his talk with a lovely slideshow of some of the Warwickshire gardens and some 'tips' on making visits to NGS open days when on a trip to England to see friends and/or family. This included the purchase of the annually updated 'Yellow Book', containing full details of all the NGS gardens throughout the UK - BUT, there's none in Northern Ireland*, and downloading the NGS smart phone 'App'.
*(see the National Trust 'Ulster Gardens Scheme' - for local lovely gardens - 'Click' the image below. This will open in a new window)
The slide show of the beautiful gardens was much appreciated by the members, especially when Keith showed a picture of his own garden in Lemmington Spa. This had been, in Keith's words, created from 'a building site' and transformed into a real 'English Country Garden'. (It is remarkable to note the similarity between Keith's garden and the one at this writer's home. Our garden also started life as 'a building site' and with much labour, and taking a strong 'conservation style' approach, we have managed to craft a garden that still looks like a building site! - WebEd)
A reminder from the NGS - before the beautiful Bluebells are past their best,
get out there and take a walk in the woods!
(Garvagh Forest is particularly good in late April/early May - WebEd)
For more information about the National Garden Scheme, 'Click' on the image below (this will open in a new window):
For a look at a typical 'English Country Garden' or ten (plus a surprise?)
NGS 2017 Donations Announced
Tuesday 14 Mar 2017
We have announced our donations for 2017 to our beneficiaries and it’s a record year!
A record £3 million will be given to nursing charities this year, including a donation to the National Autistic Society, our new Gardens and Health charity.
Macmillan Cancer Support - £500,000
Marie Curie - £500,000
Hospice UK - £500,000
Carers Trust - £400,000
Queen’s Nursing Institute - £375,000
Parkinson’s UK - £150,000
Perennial - £130,000
MS Society - £130,000
National Autistic Society - £130,000
Other donations - £185,000
