The Hidden Garden Selsey - opening dates for community garden for people of all ages

The Hidden Garden is a community gardening project helping and encouraging local people to become involved with growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers along with providing spaces for wildlife to thrive. The garden is open to people of all ages and abilities in the Selsey community, organised by the Selsey Community Forum but looked after by a dedicated group of local volunteers.

Situated next to the Academy Selsey School, volunteers run events and workshops to teach organic horticulture, wildlife gardening and sustainability. Regular gardening activities for young people take place throughout the year and volunteers share produce with elder local residents who attend activities in the garden. We encourage people to share and swap spare seeds, plants and gardening equipment throughout the year and we have a variety of perennial plants available for a donation to our visitors.

The space is shared with Selsey Men in Sheds who make innovative wooden garden items and the charity Youth Dream who provide educational and support services to young people in the area. If you visit thegarden, you will find lots of ideas and ways to grow fresh organic vegetables, fruit and herbs along with a variety of wildlife habitats and ways to increase biodiversity in gardens of all sizes. Partial wheelchair access over grass paths.

The Hidden Garden is open for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday April 30 and Sunday July 30, from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Admission £5, children free. Tea. Pre-book on the National Garden Scheme website ngs.org.uk or pay on the day

The National Garden Scheme was founded in 1927 by The Queen’s Nursing Institute to raise money for district nurses. Ever since then it has given annual donations to nursing and health charities totalling over £67 million. It gives visitors unique, affordable access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands and raises impressive amounts through admission charges and the sale of tea and cake.

Thanks to the generosity of garden owners, volunteers and visitors NGS is now the most significant charitable funder of nursing in the UK. As well as the Queen’s Nursing Institute, beneficiaries include Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK and Parkinson’s UK.

The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – volunteers are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. They fund projects which promote gardens and gardening as therapy, and in 2016 commissioned The Kings Fund report Gardens and Health Our Gardens and Coronavirus 2020: The importance of gardens and outdoor spaces during lockdown report was published in September 2020.To date NGS has given out grants to almost 200 projects, with the total amount donated just shy of £400,000. The Hidden Garden received a grant in 2020.

For other West Sussex gardens opening for the National Garden Scheme this spring visit ngs.org.uk , the Selsey Life Website What On pages selseylife.weebly.com/whats-on.html or click on the following link: ngs.org.uk/west-sussex-spring-gardens/The Sussex National Garden Scheme 2023 Booklet is now available online or at many local outlets.