Urgent appeal for gardens

Without more gardens, we will unfortunately have to cancel HI Open Gardens on 16th June 2024. If you could open your garden, please get in touch as soon as possible.

Open Gardens is a community event, raising money for charities. Last time, we had 17 gardens open, of all shapes and sizes, and raised £11,000, which was split between HI Feast, HI Friends, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and Shepreth Hedgehog Hospital. With so many charities struggling at the moment, we would love to make 2024 just as successful.

Your garden certainly doesn’t need to be immaculate or straight out of the glossy magazines (although we love those, too!). Perhaps you have a passion for growing vegetables or for making the best home possible for wildlife, or maybe an interesting collection or hobby. It also doesn’t matter if your garden is tiny – they are often the most inspiring, giving visitors ideas for their own tiny gardens or awkward spaces, and you can always ask visitors to wait if the garden starts to get too busy.

Welcoming the community into your garden is hugely rewarding, and once you’ve done it once you’re very likely to want to do it again! You can expect hundreds of visitors of all ages, with appreciative comments and enthusiasm, who will help you to see your garden through new eyes! Perhaps you have a big enough space to host live music in your garden, or you have an idea for another activity? Or perhaps you have a favourite charity (local, national or international) to suggest for us to support this year. If you’re interested, have a look at the rest of the website to find out more and contact us as soon as possible (16th December at the latest) info@opengardens.org.