National Garden Scheme Comes to Sunnyside

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  • The National Garden Scheme comes to Sunnyside Rural Trust
  • Saturday 13 May 2023, 11am – 4pm
  • Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted & Northchurch

It’s all hands on deck as Sunnyside Rural Trust welcomes the National Garden Scheme for the first time to all three of our sites. Our entire team of trainees, staff and volunteers are busy putting the finishing touches on our three 6-acre gardens in Hemel Hempstead, Northchurch and Berkhamsted which will open for the NGS on Saturday 13 May from 11 to 4pm. A select range of perennial plants, veg seedlings and herb plants will be available for sale as well as home-made chutneys and jams from our own produce.

Admission is £7 (one ticket offers access to all three locations). Children go free! Tickets may be purchased in advance:

https://findagarden.ngs.org.uk/garden/44821/sunnyside-rural-trust-trail

Or you may purchase tickets with cash/card at any of the garden sites.

Refreshments available! There is a Café & Farm Shop at both the Hemel Hempstead and Northchurch sites. The cafes offer hot and cold drinks, barista coffees, as well as cakes and snacks from the farm shop. The Sunnyside Up Café at Hemel has vegetarian and vegan lunch options.

The Hemel Food Garden is a Green Flag award site accessible from the Grand Union canal that is also a plant nursery growing peat free perennial and annual bedding for domestic and commercial clients. They have an orchard, quiet space and market garden growing a range of fruit and vegetables for their own use in the café and farm shop.

At Berkhamsted, located just above the town, is Sunnyside’s Activity Center. There are two rest gardens nestling under mature fruit trees including a fine specimen of the rare Aylesbury prune. There is a vegetable growing area, extensive cane and espalier fruit garden and a woodland and hazel coppice, each busy with wildlife. They make delicious jams and chutneys from the fruit and vegetables.

Nestled alongside local allotments the Sunnyside Northchurch site is a market garden and small animal farm. They grow vegetables to organic principles using ‘no dig’ methods and a variety of fruits. There are a number of diverse habitats including an orchard with over 300 chickens, nature trail, wildlife pond & courtyard perennial garden. They also look after four goats, four pigs, thirty sheep and one resident cat. There is assisted wheelchair access where there are woodland & grass paths.

What is the National Garden Scheme? The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake. The National Garden Scheme doesn’t just open beautiful gardens for charity – they are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. They also support charities doing amazing work in gardens and health and grant bursaries to help community gardening projects.”