Get involved
More and more people are enjoying being involved in Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts. Gardening and raising money for charitable causes is a wonderful combination, hence our motto of
“Gardening & Generosity”
Having decided that you want to help us make the association a national success, the next stage is “How?” There are 3 main ways to participate:
Simply by visiting our gardens
The easiest way to get involved is simply by buying an annual membership card and visiting our gardens. For 15€ (or 16€ if purchased via the website*), you can visit, anywhere in France and throughout the year on their opening dates, as many gardens as you wish. Only here for the day? Buy a Day Pass, normally 5€, at any of our gardens.
Many gardens serve light refreshments and/or have plants for sale. Not only does this add to the pleasure of your visit, the consequent income adds considerably to our funds. There really aren’t many nicer ways to pass a day than sitting in a beautiful garden with a cup of tea in one hand, cake in the other, in the company of fellow gardeners!
* The additional 1€ is to help offset the additional charges & postage costs.
VISIT OUR GARDENSOpen your garden to the public
Far from being stressful, our garden owners tell us that opening their garden once or twice a year is a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable experience. The pleasure of listening to the hum of appreciative conversation above the buzz of the bees cannot be overstated.
One of the main concerns expressed by potential participants when contemplating offering a garden for inclusion is that their garden isn’t good enough. Our criteria are simple and designed to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Do you have sufficient interest for a 30 minute visit? If the answer is “Yes”, you are almost certain to be accepted. In fact, even if you can’t comply with the 30 minute guideline, if there is a garden close to you which does, you can team up. All we ask is that you open for at least 1 day per year.
If your garden brings pleasure to you, it will almost certainly bring pleasure to others.
CONTACT USBecome a local coordinator
Our association is growing by the day and it is likely that we shall become a national organisation by 2021, by which time we want to see beautiful gardens open to the public in every city, town and village in France. In order to do this, we need volunteers to find these hidden gems.
The role of a coordinator is simple: find local gardens and encourage them to join up. Having done so, it only remains to encourage them to open on the same day(s) so that visitors can enjoy a tour. All of the tedious bits, like insurance, publicity, administration, printing and fund-raising, are done by us, which leaves you to visit beautiful gardens and ask the owners to join in. Better still, ask a friend to help and soon you will have created a small team of coordinators and an ever-increasing number of gardens – Perfect!
CONTACT USBecome a Friend of Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts
You may be able to help us by
a) assisting at a special event or garden open day
b) assisting at a plant fair
c) donating plants and cuttings
d) or even by baking a cake!
