There are many beautiful gardens belonging to Old Rectories, Old Vicarages, Old Parsonages, Abbeys and Priories which are part of the National Garden Scheme (NGS) list of gardens open to the public in order to raise money for the NHS. The gardens are usually open to the public in the spring, summer and autumn.
During the pandemic, most of these gardens had to close but the owners found a way for us to visit these gardens ‘virtually’. It was, and still is, a good way of enjoying gardens and learning from what the owners tell us about them in these virtual tours. To enjoy viewing these filmed gardens, simply cut and paste the link below into any browser and it will take you to the NGS site where you can pick and choose any garden and ‘virtually’ enjoy it. https://ngs.org.uk/virtual-garden-visits/
Please consider making a donation when you ‘visit’ to support the NGS health-related charities.
Real garden visits resumed straight after the pandemic, and you can visit any of the NGS-scheme gardens, (including old rectory, vicarage, parsonage, glebe and abbey gardens) all over the UK. To choose one, simply go into the NGS website and select the tab ‘Find A Garden’. At the top of the next page you will see the word ‘Location’ and it has a drop-down menu where you should be able to select ‘Garden’ and hereby select a garden by name. If you type in ‘rectory’ (or vicarage, parsonage, glebe or abbey), a list of these will appear and you can go through the list and choose a rectory-related garden.
Some gardens can be visited spontaneously but some need to be booked by prior arrangement.