Tasty gardens to explore

A plant-based diet is now acknowledged as a major contributor to a healthier life-style but there are other benefits besides eating more fruit and vegetables that can boost your health and wellbeing. Rather than popping down to the supermarket or ordering on-line, growing your own – organically if you can – brings with it benefits beyond the delicious fresh produce you can enjoy at your dining table.

“The physical creation and tending of your plot – whether it’s a patio container, a corner of your garden, an allotment or a full-blown kitchen garden – can help keep you fit and motivated, and inspire a great sense of optimism. And, if you get your planning and storage right, you can enjoy home-grown produce throughout the year,” says National Garden Scheme CEO, Dr Richard Claxton.

Many National Garden Scheme gardens include greenhouses and vegetable patches where owners produce edibles for their own consumption, others work on a more commercial scale like the stunning Goldstone Hall Gardens in Shropshire – opening 15 July, 12 August and 9 September, or try Thyme in Gloucestershire opening 5 August. Situated on the edge of the water meadows, Thyme’s carefully managed kitchen gardens ensure abundance from the land while protecting and maintaining the fertile alluvial soil. The garden is productive for much of the year and features a herb garden, cutting gardens and polytunnels to extend the seasons. They grow a large variety of flavoursome and unusual varieties to supply their restaurants.

Ryton Organic Gardens in Coventry, which opens on 11 July and 12 September, is an inspirational and sustainable demonstration garden containing a wonderful fruit and vegetable potager, together with several large ornamental flower beds. Packed full of ideas for gardens of all sizes, it features a large glasshouse, polytunnel, composting area, water features, no-dig and container gardens plus two National Plant Collections.

Helen’s Bay Organic in County Down, Northern Ireland also offers visitors a taster of grow your own when it opens on 29 August.

We also open allotment groups where visitors can pick up growing tips from a diverse range of allotment holders. Here’s a tasty taster for visits through to October:

Moss Park Allotments in Lancashire opens Sunday 12 July
Cheadle Allotments, Stoke-on-Trent opens Sunday 12 July
Shepherd Road Allotments, Lancashire opens 18 July
Hook Cross Allotments, Hampshire opens 18 and 19 July
Aberystwyth Allotments, Ceredigion opens 19 July
Chitts Hill Allotment and Garden Society, London opens 19 July
Imberhorne Allotments, West Sussex opens 6 September as part of East Grinstead Gardens
Golf Course Allotments, North London opens 6 September
Grange Fell Allotments Cumbria opens By Arrangement to end of September
Littleover Lane Allotments, Derbyshire opens By Arrangement until 30 October

And, of the many gardens that also have kitchen gardens, edibles and grow your own, why not try one or more of these delicious options:

Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire opens 26 July. This historic 12 acre garden and formal landscaped grounds in a parkland setting surround a Grade II, C17 house, the former residence of HRH Princess Mary, daughter of George V and Queen Mary. Gertrude Jekyll inspired the 120 foot double herbaceous borders, rose garden and woodland walk. And a jewel in the crown is the large restored kitchen garden with rill, fountain and large glasshouse which produces fruit and vegetables for the Hall’s commercial kitchens.

Woodpeckers, Woking, Surrey opens on 30 August and 6 September (lead picture copyright Clive Nichols) and offers a journey through a horticultural designer’s own garden, where plants take centre stage in succession, providing year-round colour and interest. The garden is divided into three rooms, each with a different planting style and purpose: vibrant colours in the jewel’s amphitheatre, leafy textures and pastels in the social room, and a productive area featuring a glasshouse and ‘grow your own’ space.

For more gardens with grow your own elements CLICK HERE