# National Garden Scheme offers virtual visits

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/05/01/national-garden-scheme-to-offer-virtual-visits/
- Published: 2020-05-01T10:07:56+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**The National Garden Scheme is offering virtual visits to some of its gardens to
enable it to continue raising funds for nursing and health charities including Macmillan
Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute.**

3,700 gardens were scheduled to open for the [National Garden Scheme](https://ngs.org.uk/)
this year but the current lockdown means that their gates have been closed for the
first time in the charity’s history.

Garden owners, volunteers and head office staff at the National Garden Scheme are
compiling [virtual garden visits](https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/) to 
keep their gardens open and to generate donations for their nursing and health beneficiaries
on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak.

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[⌊Ulting Wick NGS⌉⌊Ulting Wick NGS⌉[

Ulting Wick, Essex. Credit: Marcus Harpur

 

Almost 20 gardens are now open for virtual visits including [The Old Rectory](https://ngs.org.uk/the-most-beautiful-old-rectory-in-england/),
Farnborough, voted ‘the most beautiful Old Rectory in England’ by Country Life magazine,
and celebrating its 50th year with the Scheme, Ulting Wick in Essex with its seasonal
display of tulips, and Blackland House in Wiltshire, which also has beautiful tulips.

 

[⌊Blackland House NGS⌉⌊Blackland House NGS⌉[

Blackland House, Wiltshire. Credit: Britt Willoughby Dyer

 

More gardens will be going live next week. These releases will focus on Gardens 
and Health – a campaign that the National Garden Scheme has championed since commissioning
[The Kings Fund Report into Gardens and Health in 2016.](https://ngs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kings-Fund-Report-1.pdf)

Rachel de Thame, National Garden Scheme ambassador, will introduce the special week
and share the importance of her own garden to her health and wellbeing. There will
also be films from its beneficiaries highlighting the role that gardens play in 
health care settings, including: Marie Curie, Horatio’s Garden, Stoke Mandeville,
Maggie’s, and Parkinson’s UK.

The Scheme will also visit some of the smaller community gardens that it supports,
such as The Therapy Garden in Surrey and the Lindengate Community Garden, Bucks,
and will be marking Garden Meditation Day on Sunday 3 May with its own meditation
designed to transport people to a restful garden.

The virtual visits are free, with people asked to consider donating to help the 
Scheme continue supporting charities.

 

Main image: The Old Rectory Farnborough. Credit: Sussie Bell

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