February meeting 2014 - The History of the NGS

Many thanks go to Mrs Margaret Arnott, who gave us a talk on the History of the National Garden Scheme at our February meeting.  During the talk, we discovered the origins of the term "District Nurse", arising from the founder of the NGS who started a charity in Liverpool following the death of his wife to raise money for home nurses.  He divided the area into "districts", and the term was born.  Mrs Arnott also gave outlines of a number of Surrey gardens open for the "Yellow Book", including her own garden at Heathside, Cobham - which also happens to grace the cover of the Surrey gardens NGS booklet.

Although, as this article goes to press, the full NGS Yellow Book is not yet available, members are recommended to use the NGS website, www.ngs.org.uk, which allows you to search for gardens open at specific times, and/or within a specified radius of home.  The website also carries up-to-date information on garden openings, and is worth checking for changes to advertised times before departure - some gardens have had to close at short notice recently on account of the rain and flooding.  The website also appears in our "Useful Links" section, on the right of the articles.