Gardens visits bring Hart’s delight
One of the country’s best loved comedians, Miranda Hart, has joined tributes to the National Garden Scheme’s (NGS) virtual visits campaign, which has been running while gardens have been closed due to the pandemic.
Miranda (pictured left) has recorded a new film with her mother Diana Hart-Dyke, specially created for the NGS as part of their current virtual visits, featuring Diana’s garden in Hampshire.(garden pictured banner above).
Gardens and comedy don’t always go hand-in-hand, but in the Hart/Hart-Dyke family they certainly do and in this delightful introduction to Diana’s garden, Miranda reminisces about her parents’ early open days for the NGS in her childhood, while Diana reflects on the enjoyment and reassurance she has always drawn from her gardening.
Miranda’s mother, Diana, (pictured below) is one of the National Garden Scheme’s best loved garden owners, who has opened her garden in the village of Hambledon for decades and who spent many years as a member of the Hampshire National Garden Scheme team.
Diana might be a consummate, if self-effacing, plantswoman and Miranda might be, by her own admission, something of a novice, but in the virtual visit, they together reveal the joy and tranquillity that access to gardens, whether physical or virtual, can bring to everyone.
Both confess to talking to their plants and both emphasise the simple rewards of tending plants and watching them grow, or of having access to another person’s beautiful garden.
You can see the video and take a virtual tour of Diana’s Hambledon garden here.
As gardens begin to reopen the new Virtual Garden Visits will continue until 25th June 2020. The virtual visits have certainly been popular with the public and have proved a delight during this difficult period when actually visiting gardens has not been possible.
This week’s virtual garden releases not only include Hambledon House; Hart’s Delight, but also gardens from London to Denbighshire, and West Sussex to Shropshire.
These include, Sandringham, (pictured above) Norfolk, the royal favourite that has supported the NGS since 1927; Hestercombe, Somerset, where three centuries of garden design combine in stunning romantic woodland walks and formal borders and Wildwood, Surrey, (pictured right) a garden tucked away behind a charming 1930s gingerbread cottage with over 50 varieties of roses, towering magnolia grandiflora and topiary.
Being able to tour the various gardens virtually has been a superb idea on behalf of the NGS and especially at this time when we have been unable to visit personally.
You can view all the virtual visits on the National Garden Scheme website at: https://ngs.org.uk
Picture credit: Banner ©credit: Leigh Clapp
