THE National Garden Scheme (NGS) is celebrating all that’s good about gardens and encouraging everyone to embrace the positivity of green spaces as part of their annual Gardens and Health Week that runs from May 3 to 11.

The NGS gives visitors unique access to 71 of the best private gardens in Cornwall. The charity has donated over £74-million to support nursing and health charities, including £3-million through its Gardens and Health Programme.

NGS chief executive, George Plumptre, comments: “We began our Gardens and Health programme in 2016. As part of our ongoing commitment, we continue to champion, and increase our funding for, garden projects in health-care settings, and community gardens; areas that we believe are vital lifelines not just for our own health and wellbeing but also for the wider health of the planet.”

This year’s Gardens and Health Week is accompanied by the fifth edition of the interactive, digital publication The Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health which brings the programme to life.

George adds: “This year our theme is ‘green medicine’ and through the various chapters the wonderfully varied and uplifting articles that they contain explore the different ways that gardens really can offer a viable and effective alternative to standard clinical responses to people’s health and wellbeing.

“In some instances, perhaps adults living with depression, lack of self-confidence or social isolation, or children with a troubled upbringing – all notoriously hard to overcome with a purely clinical response - gardens and gardening offer something unique which we still have fully to understand.

“The Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health brings to life a range of experiences with incisive – and often uplifting – immediacy."

Along with personal stories and expert opinion from contributors including Dr Miriam Stoppard, Danny Clarke, Dame Laura Lee, Dr Susan Taheri, Hazel Gardiner and key nursing charities, the book explores the benefit of gardens and gardening for our own, and the planets, health.

NGS Ambassador, gardener, television presenter and writer Rachel de Thame, said: “The richness and diversity of storytelling in The Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health perfectly reflects the incredible variety of gardens that open for the National Garden Scheme, while showcasing everything that makes gardens and green spaces so important for everyone's health and wellbeing.”

To view all of the gardens in Cornwall opening for the National Garden Scheme, visit: ngs.org.uk/cornwall