Mick Moat: President Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts
mick@opengardens.euOpen Gardens/Jardins Ouverts is modelled loosely on a scheme in the UK, called theNational Garden Scheme Yellow Book, which started in 1927 and now has over 3,800gardens. During this time, it has raised over £42 million for charities.
Similar schemes exist in many countries but there doesn’t appear to be a national project in France which is similar, in that it raises money for a variety of charities by encouraging owners to open their garden for a small charge. Consequently, in 2013, four British garden owners, all based in the Creuse, ran a trial to determine whether there was the potential to develop an Open Garden scheme in France.
The gardens were open for 5 hours during the last Sunday in June, attracted over 50 visitors and raised 300€ which was donated to a French charity called A Chacun son Everest, an organisation which was founded by Dr Christine Janin, the first French woman to summit Everest. This charity organises activities for children with, or in remission from cancer or leukaemia and whose philosophy recognises the similarity of the challenge to climb a huge mountain and the challenge facing children with a seriousillness.
Encouraged by this success, an association was formed in January 2014 (W232001865).The brand name was also registered in late September 2014 (N° National 14 4 073 259).The target for 2014 was to have 12 gardens and to raise 1,000€ for the same charity. In fact, 28 gardens participated and were open for the weekend of 28/29 June from 10am – 7pm. The variety of gardens was wide and included features such as ponds and lakes, wild flower areas, raised bed horticulture, gardens on the banks of the Gartempe and 2châteaux. The gardens were dispersed throughout 4 départements, the Creuse (23), the Haute Vienne (87), the Corrèze (19) and the Vienne (86) and were 25% French owned and 75% British owned.
The weekend itself was very well supported, despite appalling weather; 422 visitors(40% French/60% British) paid 5€ which entitled them to visit as many gardens as they wished throughout the weekend. Some gardens had refreshments and/or plants for sale, which boosted the income to over 3 times our anticipated target. 3,051€ was the final tally, of which 2,500€ was sent to A Chacun son Everest, the balance being withheld to help with the considerable expenses for 2015. A very rewarding relationship with the charity has been established, an example being the receipt of a handwritten letter of thanks and congratulations written by the founder, Dr Janin.
Publicity is essential to the project and the press is keen to cover the project. Locally, English papers Creuse News, Etcetera and The Bugle have run many articles; local French newspapers, La Montagne, Le Populaire and Echos du Centre, have been similarly supportive. On a national basis, the Connexions Newspaper gave a half page article in 2014 and a subsequent article in 2015, French Property News did an article of two pages and several other magazines have covered the events. The small publicity stall at the 3 day Journées des Plantes at Courson (16-18 May 2014), one of France’s premier plant exhibitions, resulted in a short article in Le Figaro magazine, timed to come out just before the open weekend in June. The Association is proud and honoured to be offered astand at the new venue of Chantilly in 2015, particularly as it coincides with the recent appointment of a co-ordinator for the Ile-de-France.
In order to expand publicity, particularly to French participants, a media person with over 20 years of journalistic experience has been recruited, whose role is to target French newspapers and magazines to advertise Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts.
Forecasted plans for 2015 included a target of 80 - 100 gardens in at least 12départements. Currently there are already 71 gardens in 12 départements so it is almostinevitable that our targets will be exceeded. Recently, the Association was delighted and honoured to receive a letter from the British Embassy stating their intent to support the project by allowing members of Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts to view their garden during the Journee du Patrimoine on Saturday 19th September.
We initially nominated 3 principle opening days in 2015 (8 March, 10 May & 12 July),giving visitors the opportunity to see a wider variety of plants than simply by opening in June but we also actively encouraged garden owners to open at other times as well and these are all publicised on the website (www.opengardens.eu). In the future, visitors will be able to view gardens virtually throughout the year. We confidently expect to raise 5,000€ this year which will once again be donated to A Chacun son Everest but with effect from 2016, the association expects to be in a position to donate to other charitiesas the income continues to grow and we are now actively seeking new causes to support.
The purchase of an annual membership card (10€) allows access to all of the gardens in the project for the whole year. By comparison, many private gardens and estates charge between 4€ - 6€ per person per visit but the association organisers wish to make viewing as cheap as possible and at the same time, raise money for charities. For casual visitors, a day pass of 5€ is also available.
Previously, all gardens were inspected by a member of the small conseil. As the project has grown, both numerically and geographically, the organisers have started to recruit area co-ordinators in order to a) attract gardens and b) find the necessary local contactsto publicise the scheme. This process started less than a year ago and there are already19 co-ordinators (in the Creuse, the Haute Vienne, the Lot, the Lot-et-Garonne, the Ile-de-France, the Dordogne, the Charente, Deux-Sèvres, the Ariège and the Gers). This system attracts additional gardens, visitors and other co-ordinators far more effectively.The conseil offers all necessary support and this includes publicity at a national level, writing reports for local papers and the printing and circulation of over 30,000 colour leaflets and flyers.
We are constantly looking for new gardens and coordinators to develop the scheme. If the idea of opening your garden, whilst raising money for good causes, appeals to you, please contact me in the first instance. In view of the fact that we have several coordinators in the Lot-et-Garonne and south Lot, it is likely that there will be someone not too far away to make a visit to discuss your potential involvement, but wherever you are, we would love to hear from you. Similarly, if you like the idea of being a coordinator, even on a small scale, please get in touch.
The long term aim of Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts is to become national and the progress of the project so far suggests that this is a realistic ambition. The more publicity we receive, the more likely it is that this will happen sooner than expected. A major strength of Open Gardens/Jardins Ouverts is the enthusiasm of all of those volunteers who give up their time and energy to support the scheme. It is wonderful to contemplate the possibility that France may one day have its own Yellow Book and we seek any and every opportunity to help to achieve this goal.
