"Why I'm opening my new build garden to the public," garden designer Andrew Jackson

"Looking back, in the five years that we’ve lived here, it amazes me that builders of these homes can specify interior fittings to the very last detail, and you can choose everything from the doors on the kitchen cupboards to the handles on the bathroom fittings, everything is bespoke, but when it comes to the spaces outside you get two options -rubble when they leave, or maybe a flat bit with poor turf.” Andrew, however, is made of sterner stuff, and he celebrates five years of challenging work this month. In the middle of an estate of well-kept lawns and driveways, or occasional flowerbeds and the odd hanging backet, is an explosion of colour, invention and inspiration.

His advice, however, is: “Don’t try to do too much, too quickly, and be very much aware that you will make a lot of mistakes, as well as getting a lot of surprises – one of mine was to buy two climbing roses, to go over each side of the new pergola. One of them galloped away, doing what it was supposed to do, up and over. The other sat in its pot, and decided to be a bush instead of a climber. You just must smile, and let whatever it is get on with it. I’m one of the local Beverley smaller gardens who are all on a joint opening day (June 21), so that visitors can drop by a few of us, instead of just a single smaller patch. I think that something like our garden here will make a lot of visitors think about what they can do with their own limited patch. We’re not all tolling acres with a mansion at the end of the tennis courts, far from it.” Andrew has been so successful with his new enterprise that he’s already been featured in Gardener’s World, and writes for magazines and at last month’s Harrogate Flower Show he won Premier Gold for his show garden titled 'Pastoral'.”

The NGS was founded in 1927 to support district nurses across the UK, and was affiliated to the Queen’s Nursing Institute. Then, a few hundred gardens – mostly those owned by the wealthy of the time – opened on a selected day of the year, and together they raised a commendable few thousand pounds.

Today, it offers access to more than 3,300 private gardens across Great Britain, everywhere from the tip of Scotland to the Channel Islands, and, in excess of £77 million has been donated to health charities since its inception. Money is raised through garden admission fees (generally only a modest few pounds or so), the sale of teas and cakes, and donations. The aim of the NGS is to promote the mental and physical health benefits of getting out into the garden – and there are nearly 100 Yorkshire gardens thrown open to us all this year.

Some open early – so that they can show the late winter and early spring blooms – each one if different, each one has something to offer the visitor, and all are a vital cog in the NGS wheel. Yorkshire, for the purposes of co-ordination, is divided into three sections, East, North, and South and West. Each has its own main organiser, and they in turn have three assistant organisers. This is mainly so that not all the gardens open at exactly the same weekend in one single month. Your visits can be staggered across the year, and there are many thousands of visitors who make a trip of it, several times a year, just to see what other gardeners are up to. A visitor can be a five-star whizz at gardening, or merely a novice seeking inspiration, or just someone being nosey about what may be behind that hedge or garden wall. There’s an annual booklet, published and distributed around the county. It’s easily spotted, since the main colour is yellow, and there’s always one of Yorkshire’s star gardens featured on the front. This year, it’s Huntington Grange, near York.

Some gardens welcome group visits, and others, in addition to their special days, will welcome guests by appointment at other times.

Biddy Marshall, with her husband Roger, have been staunch supporters of the NGS, since the late 1980s. In fact, Biddy was organising things when there were only about a dozen gardens open across the whole of the county. They live next door to the beautiful Whixley parish church, the 14th century Church of The Ascension, which is Grade II listed. In fact, the lych gate is right alongside the Marshall’s gate. They moved into their home when “there was an awful lot to do,” recalls Biddy with an affectionate chuckle, “we were living under a leaking roof, and there were buckets everywhere. In fact, it was more like camping. About the only thing in the garden was an ancient Yew tree – and an awful lot of ground elder and even more weeds. So, we mowed what grass there was, and just, well….set to.”

They had a garage and storage space built, dug out a border, and built retaining walls. Their space has slowly developed into one of the best in Yorkshire. Biddy cautions that gardening is not “for anyone who wants instant gratification – as some TV programmes would have you believe. It’s about patience, vision, and slowly developing a circle of friends who will cheerfully give you cuttings.” You can immediately see the level of her determination when she reveals that, back then, she even enrolled at the prestigious Askham Bryan College, to specifically learn about all the many soil types in the county, and what would (or would not) grow in and on them. There’s still a yearly soil delivery to Whixley, as Biddy and Roger continue to improve the ground. She recalls: “The tutors at the College were wonderful, and some became fast friends. Gardeners have one thing in common, and that is their thirst for knowledge in what grows in their garden, and then the passing on of what they have learned. It’s a bond, if you like. They are all, without exception, incredibly generous with their time. It took me years to learn how to garden, and I’m still learning – you never stop. If you think that Roger and I sit in the evening sunshine, just basking in our efforts, you are so very wrong. More than likely we’re thinking ‘Oh, yes, that needs altering, that sightline must be improved. That’s a mess, it has to be improved’."

She says of the NGS: “You never stand still. Choosing the gardens which could be involved, and opened, was always the biggest challenge. There were some that were lovely – but perhaps too small to accommodate a lot of guests, and for so many reasons. Today, that’s changed a lot, because many of the smaller gardens in communities get together, and do a joint opening day together.”

David and Elizabeth Smith, whose garden in Golcar in Huddersfield is on a steep slope down from their home. “There are steps all the way down to the compost heap,” says Elizabeth, “so if you make that journey frequently, it does get a bit hard on the knees.” They are exposed to the elements in the winter, so a greenhouse and a large conservatory are “a great help,” when they want to protect the more tender plants. And when the rain comes through the darker months, they also have natural springs popping up all over their garden. One of the greatest joys that the couple have is “the number of wild animals we get here – squirrels, badgers, voles, shrews, you name it. They seem to love the garden as much as we do.”

For details of the open gardens in your area visit ngs.org

Littlethorpe Hall Gardens will be open on July 5 this year not July 26 as previously stated