Surprise, surprise, it’s raining again so what better time than to stay warm indoors and reflect on this year’s incredible NGS season. We thought we did really well last year, but the final figures for this year went beyond our hopes and then some.

We:

• Had four NGS public open days through the summer, two of them combined with Dorset Cottage
• Had over 600 visitors with a very steady 150 visitors each opening
• Served over 340 slices of cake, running out each time apart from the final Open Day
• Raised over £4100 for charities

The weather had been dicey through the season, but thankfully dry, if not always warm. We noted that many people were second- and even third-time visitors. It was lovely to welcome them back to the garden. There was also a lot more “noise” about the cake. People were turning up just to experience it, or get some more (read about our cakes in this blog post: Indulging the Sweet Tooth to see why they’re so popular). The cakes served on our NGS days are gaining a reputation to rival the garden itself.

Of course, it’s not a one-man NGS show, I had a whole army of volunteers from the local Gardening Club to help welcome visitors, serve the cakes and teas, collect empties from people, refill kettles and even wash-up. Many are NGS veterans who helped us last year and – for some unknown reason – wanted to do it all over again for this year’s Open Days.

With the NGS “flywheel” now spinning down, I can reflect on how the season went, what I was happy with and what I think I could improve. We had suggestions from the volunteers about how to better organise the serving space for the cakes and requests from some visitors for more plant labelling. Those aren’t huge changes, meaning we have the NGS formula down pretty well. However, I do feel we’re now “at capacity” for the number of visitors we can manage on any given Open Day, having more than 160 turn up would give us problems with parking, seating, space in the garden, catering and getting plates and cups washed and cycled round. Within our 4-hour opening window for 1:00pm-5:00pm, the majority of them arrive in the middle two hours. So we’re twiddling thumbs at the start, then it’s complete pandemonium, then it settles down again and we can relax.

Even though our NGS Open Days are over for this year, NGS business isn’t. We recently met up with the lovely owners of Dorset Cottage, who opened their garden in combination with ours on two Open Days and together, arranged the dates for 2025. We came up with:

1. Sunday 8th June, with ourselves doing the Teas. This is a combined opening with Dorset Cottage.
2. Sunday 29th June, with Teas at Dorset Cottage. This is a combined opening with Dorset Cottage.
3. Sunday 17th August, this is a solo opening.
4. Sunday 7th September with Teas at Dorset Cottage. This is a combined opening with Dorset Cottage.

Prices remain the same as this year (no increases):

• £5 solo entry (for a single garden)
• £7 combined entry (to both gardens)
• £4 cake
• £1 drink

While I’m highly relieved to be doing the “full” catering only twice, I’m planning to supply some cakes to Dorset Cottage for our combined September opening, to help balance out the workload.

With this schedule there are a couple of notable items. The first is that we’re not opening in July because we can’t get our diaries to comfortably line-up with other things happening in that month and the second is that we’re opening in September – which is very late in the season for an NGS garden.

The September opening is an interesting one as that’s when the main border is looking its best. The light in September is also exquisite, if you happen to catch the garden on a balmy late-summer afternoon in September, it’s magical and I would really like visitors to experience that. The garden is by no means “done” with growing, flowering and surprising by this time of year.

So there is the wrap-up for the 2024 NGS season. It’s been an incredible year. I don’t expect us to beat the record again in 2025, but I do think it will be a little more manageable, which I’m all in favour for. All that remains is to say a big, “thank you” to all the volunteers, visitors, donors (of chairs) and the NGS.

We hope to see you next year.