Celebrating our Marie Curie hospice garden openings in 2023

The National Garden Scheme has been supporting Marie Curie for over 25 years and one of the features of the partnership is the opening of Marie Curie hospice gardens for the Scheme. After years of uncertainty created by Covid restrictions, 2023 saw a return to garden visiting at these very special gardens.

“We were thrilled that for the first time since the pandemic, three of our Marie Curie hospices were able to open their garden gates to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme in June. The openings went brilliantly, and below is a snapshot of how each hospice got on. Thank you to everyone at the National Garden Scheme for your continued support of Marie Curie!” says Lily Whitlam and Team Marie Curie.

Newcastle Hospice opened its gardens on Sunday 18th June. 

The team had plenty on offer for visitors, including light refreshments available from their Garden Café, a tombola, raffle, plant stalls and a pop-up shop. The day was a roaring success, with 48 visitors and £600 raised! A special shout-out has to go to our volunteer gardeners, Maggie and Ian, for all the hard work they put into the Hospice gardens throughout the year (Maggie is pictured below).

Hampstead Hospice garden opening 

The Hampstead Hospice were particularly lucky with the sunshine, and received 30 visitors when they opened their gardens on 24th June. The highlight of the day has to be the brass band who thoroughly entertained the visitors and the wide selection of tea and cakes went down a treat!

West Midlands Hospice garden opening

The patient rooms at the West Midlands Hospice are all arranged around the gardens, so the garden volunteers take extra pride in making them as beautiful as possible.

The gardens opened to the public on 25th June. It was a beautiful and sunny day, with volunteers running a tombola and baking delicious cakes to sell alongside plants and decorated pots. Thanks to over 250 visitors and their enthusiasm for the great outdoors, an incredible £2,500 was raised on the day! 

“The gardens are such an important part of the hospice, they give a peaceful space to enjoy and spend some time with nature. Our team of 21 volunteers have been working hard the last few months to ensue the garden is looking beautiful and full of colour,” said garden volunteer Do Connolly from Solihull – pictured with fellow volunteers in our lead image. 

“Each hospice garden had so much fun taking part in the National Garden Scheme this year and can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2024!” adds Lily.

To find out more about our partnership with Marie Curie CLICK HERE