A Review By Keith Smith

The one guide you cannot do without – if you like gardens, gardening, fascinating days out, afternoon tea somewhere nice. It really is a treat every year to pick up the new Yellow Book and plan a few trips. The National Gardens Scheme aims to get as many people as possible to open their garden for charity. It can be just one day or all year round. It can be a single suburban back garden or a whole group of gardens in a village or street. You can be visiting a grand garden for inspiration, or a smaller garden than yours where the owner has done so much that you are left speechless in admiration.

The Guide is incredibly well-organised giving breakdowns by county, and by opening date. And, for each garden, there is a beautiful little description of what you will find, opening hours, parking and how to get there. Remember, virtually all the gardens are private and this is a wonderful opportunity to see places which would otherwise be totally unavailable to you.

Highly recommended.