The National Gardens Scheme is an award scheme in England and Wales. It was founded in 1927 in England with the aim of "opening gardens of quality, character and interest to the public for charity". Originally, the money was raised to provide pension support for district nurses; 609 private gardens were opened and £8,191 was raised.
Over time, other charities were included in the scheme. In 1948, the new National Health Service took over the paying of pensions to district nurses, and in 1980, the National Gardens Scheme Charitable Trust was launched, with Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother as patron. The current patron is Charles, Prince of Wales. The gardens open to the public under the scheme are listed each year in publication called "The Yellow Book". The scheme has raised over £40 million since it began, and over half a million garden visits occur each year.
The National Gardens Scheme is featured in a Twofour produced BBC2 programme Open Gardens.
Famous quotes containing the words national, gardens and/or scheme:
“I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.”
—Howard Barker (b. 1946)
“The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences. Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as civilization advances, but the most populous and civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its wharves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have no scheme about it,—no designs on men at all; and, if I had, my mode would be to tempt them with the fruit, and not with the manure. To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives?—and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared, to live more worthily and profitably?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)