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:

Shepherd Road Allotments, Lancashire opens 18 July

Hook Cross Allotments, Hampshire opens 18 and 19 July
Bring along a jam jar or tupperware of your homemade compost or soil and have a free health check from Soil Ecology Lab, local experts in soil biology, composting, and all things growing related. They say, “We want to show you your soil through the microscope and help you with your growing situation, so come along with any and all questions and we’ll do our best to get an accurate answer to you on the day or we’ll find the answer and email you. Seeing your first wiggly soil nematode or testate amoeba will change how you view your soil!! If bringing soil please dig down at least 4-6 inches around some plant roots.”

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
Grangetown Kitchen Garden, Cardiff, opens 19 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.

If you’re in Wales on August 8 or 9 – visit Cefncoed Uchaf in Dyfed this lovely family garden set around a 200 year-old farmhouse, blends traditional planting with contemporary touches. Features include a newly renovated Dutch barn, raised vegetable beds, perennial borders, pond, greenhouse and shell-mulched area. Designed with sustainability, wildlife and seasonal interest in mind.

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