Look inside the stunning Chesterfield garden that has raised over £10,000 for charity

The National Garden Scheme sees stunning gardens open to the public, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the beauty and tranquillity of nature's splendour. Visitors are asked for an entry fee which goes to charity, and at Old Road, you could also grab a hot drink and a cake.

Through the remarkable generosity of garden owners, volunteers, and visitors, the scheme has contributed an impressive sum of over £67 million to nursing and health charities. In 2022 alone, their beneficiaries, which include Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Parkinson's UK, Carers Trust, and The Queen's Nursing Institute, received a substantial donation of £3.11 million.

Julia Stubbs, who works incredibly hard all year round to prepare her garden for the event, said: “This is the 9th year we’ve had an open garden, we started off doing it ourselves as we weren’t in the National Garden Scheme, we’ve only been doing that for the last six years.”

Talking about her motivations to open the garden up to the public, Julia said: “We’d had people at Ashgate Hospice, as many people have, so we just decided to do something to give something back. Mum said at the time - ‘do you think if we opened the garden anyone would come?’ We had 500 people last year over the four days and we’ve raised over £10,000 so far from the entry fee and teas or coffee. I also sell propagate plants, and we make quite a lot of money out of that as well.”

Other than raising money, open gardens like this one in Chesterfield have other benefits, as Julia explains: “Really it’s not just about that - it’s about the people who come, some people are isolated and live on their own, it’s a bit company for them, it’s a community. Yesterday we got people dragging chairs up to one table and all sitting together, and it’s lovely to see people chatting and getting on. For some people, it’s their main outing in summer and they look forward to it all year.”