Our favourite gardens

It may be late summer, but there is still the chance to visit some of our county’s most stunning gardens while they are at their best. Debbie Thomson showcases a selection of the county’s favourites

- Debbie Thomson

As an unusual garden visiting season starts to draw to a close, four favourite Essex gardens are embracing an opportunity this September to share their autumn colour, opening to the public with new guidelines in place.

Back in February this year, as the National Garden Scheme (NGS) Snowdrop Festival got underway, few could have predicted how its calendar of garden openings was going to be affected by a global pandemic. Having to close all gardens for the first time in the charity’s 93-year history was a huge blow and meant that beneficiaries such as Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and The Queen’s Nursing Institute were likely to face a shortfall in the donations they could hope to receive. Undaunted, the NGS quickly put together a programme of virtual video garden tours, allowing garden owners to share the results of their wonderful gardens without anyone leaving their home.

Then, from early June, the charity was able to start reopening gardens, adhering to the government guidelines which require that visitors purchase a pre-booked time slot and the number of visitors at any time is suitable for the size of garden. Four gardens which were scheduled to open in September in Essex decided to open in this way to the delight of their regular visitors, and hopefully to some new to the NGS too.