Visit two beautiful National Garden Scheme gardens in a picturesque West Sussex village

Thakeham Place Farm and Cumberland House are opening together on July 20 and 23. Admission is £8 for both gardens. Children go free. Home-made teas will be served at Thakeham Place Farm. Refreshments in aid of Revitalise - Respite Holidays for Disabled People & Carers.

Cumberland House is a Georgian village house (not open), next to the C12 church. It has a beautiful, mature, ¾ acre English country garden. There is a walled garden laid out as a series of rooms with well-stocked flower beds, two rare ginkgo trees and yew topiary, leading to an informal garden with vegetable, herb and fruit areas, pleached limes and a lawn shaded by a copper beech tree.

The garden at Thakeham Place Farm is set in the middle of a working dairy farm. The garden has evolved over the last 30 years. Taking advantage of its sunny position on free draining greensand, the borders are full of sun loving plants and grasses with a more formal area surrounding the farmhouse (not open). There are lovely views across the farm to Warminghurst from the orchard.

About the National Garden SchemeThe 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 we are now the most significant charitable funder of nursing in the UK. As well as the Queen’s Nursing Institute, our 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 – we are passionate about the physical and mental health benefits of gardens too. We 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.

Visit https://ngs.org.uk for more information about the work of the National Garden Scheme, to search for gardens opening in your area or to find out how to open your own garden.

For other gardens opening in West Sussex this Summer click on the following link.https://ngs.org.uk/west-sussex-summer-gardens/