Three years ago, Stephen and Kim Rogers decided to open up their garden to the public.

For the couple, who who run Dove Cottage Nursery in Shibden Hall Road, Halifax, the idea was to support a worthy cause.

Stephen and Kim are part of the National Garden Scheme (NGS) which, in the 85 years since it was launched to support the Queen’s Nursing Institute – which remains one of its main benefactors – has raised more than £35 million for a range of charities.

Every year NGS gardens across England and Wales welcome about 750,000 visitors. Most gardens which open for the NGS are privately-owned and some open as part of a group, with the whole community involved.

When the first 609 gardens opened in 1927, it marked a revolution in unrestricted public access to private gardens. Nothing like it had ever happened before. The radical idea was to ask people to open up private gardens for “a shilling a head”, and in the first year more than £8,000 was raised.

Over the years the gardens have changed in size and style, and NGS now has thousands of smaller gardens. Several of the original gardens still open to the public, too. Today the scheme is supported by NGS Patron, Prince Charles. The charity gives away more than £2.5 million each year to nursing, caring and gardening charities and has raised more than £25 million in the last 15 years.

Its principal benefactors are Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie Cancer Care , Help the Hospices, Crossroads Care and Perennial the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Fund. This year, the NGS’s charity is The Alzheimer’s Society.

For Stephen, supporting the charity is particularly poignant as his mother, Mabel, had the condition. By opening up their garden – which spans an acre and has summer perennials, ornamental grasses, winding paths, seats, a romantic oak tulip arbour and open views of woodland – he and Kim are also supporting The Brooke animal charity and the Leonard Cheshire Home at Sowerby.

“We have a good garden and it’s a good way of helping all the charities that the National Garden Scheme gives money to,” says Kim Another garden being opened up this summer is The Grange in Carleton , near Skipton , familiar to the millions of viewers who watched ITV series The Dales . The garden featured in the programme, presented by Bradford-born Adrian Edmondson who visited owner Margaret Wooler as she prepared to open her stunning four-acre garden for the NGS last year.

This year The Grange opens on three days and welcomes groups by appointment during August.

Margaret joined the NGS scheme a decade ago and has raised a staggering £35,000 for charities. She enjoys combining her passion for gardening with raising funds for charities. As well as NGS charities, she supports the Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice .

Concerns about the effects of recent heavy rainfall don’t faze Margaret, whose garden is thriving, with plenty to see. Herbaceous borders, walled gardens, raised beds, water features and scarecrows are some of the features of the tranquil oasis she has spent more than a decade nurturing.

She says visitors numbers have remained bouyant, and recently welcomed 240 people, including someone from Guernsey, to browse around her garden and take afternoon tea. “Over the years we’ve gone from 30 or 50 people to 250,” she says.

Roger and Christine Lambert opened their two-acre formal garden at High Hall in Steeton for the first time on the NGS scheme last year. The couple believe their house could have been one of the first to open to the public in the 1930s when it was owned by renowned photographer Alex Keighley , whose glass slides are exhibited at the property.

“We couldn’t let the garden go to ruin. We put ridiculous quantities of time and effort into it,” says Roger.

When the couple opened their garden last year, they attracted 350 visitors despite drizzle. “The garden is like a robot, it doesn’t stop. It doesn’t matter whether it rains or it is windy, it keeps going,” says Roger.

Factfile:

  • National Garden Scheme open gardens events are held throughout the region over the summer.
  • The Grange near Skipton is open on Saturday, July 28 and Wednesday, August 8 from 1pm to 5pm.
  • Dove Cottage, Shibden Hall Road, Halifax, is opened every Wednesday until September 26, from 10am to 5pm.
  • For more about the 3,800 gardens participating in the scheme, visit ngs.org.uk.