Gwent gardens that opened under the National Garden Scheme this year have raised more than £30,000 for a raft of charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Queen’s Nursing Institute, Parkinson’s UK and the Carers Trust.

Last year, nationally, the NGS donated £2.7 million, being the largest single donor to a number of the charities.

Now’s the time to put your garden forward for inclusion in the 2017 NGS guide. Next year is the organisation’s 90th anniversary and lots of interesting ideas are being formulated to try to increase the annual donations, so it’s the ideal time to join the ‘family’.

If you like the idea of sharing your pride and joy with like-minded people and doing a good deed at the same time, then the NGS is for you.

At this stage all you need to do is contact Joanna Kerr, the Gwent County Organiser, on 01873 840422 or by e-mail at [email protected] for an informal chat.

Current garden openers Sue and Ian Mabberley of Nant-y-Bedd said, “It’s a lovely way to share your garden with other enthusiasts. The conversations and comments make it all really worthwhile and then there’s the added boost of counting the money at the end of the day, knowing it going to make someone’s life better.”