Does anyone open their garden to the public? Any tips gratefully received!

[MrsJohnDeere]

I'm doing so for the first time this weekend and am wondering what on earth I was thinking when agreeing to it!

So much needs doing (weeding mainly) before the big day but it won't stop raining.

I love open gardens! Are you in the yellow book?
What we normally do is have a look around, admire (know NOTHING about plants, gardens, but it gives me such a sense of peace, and MIL can come too), stop for multiple cups of tea/coffee and a big slab of cake and then go on our merry way.
I love buying their own produce too, so eggs/salad/fruit, I'd always buy, even if I don't really need them.
Good luck, hope the weather holds for you.

Have someone else on hand to sell plants/cream tea duty if you're doing it. People will want to talk to you about the garden :)

Apart from that, nothing apart from relax. I panicked far too much but gardeners are lovely people and will be glad to have a nosey!

I did for the first time last weekend. We had 168 visitors and the school PTFA did the teas. Are you part of the yellow book scheme?

DH is still recovering, we don't have a gardener or anything posh like that, he is knackered I just stood around accepting compliments, it was great!

We're not in the yellow book. It's a village-organised open gardens event. Thankfully teas and plant sales take place somewhere else so I don't have to worry about those.

I've been told to expect upwards of 600 people . We've never had more than 10 in the garden at any one time before now.

I hope I won't get too many difficult questions. We're relative newcomers to a very well-established garden and I'm not 100% sure what all the plants are.

We were in the Yellow Book and the first year we had 800 visitors . We did plants and tea (or rather the local WI did tea thank god as DS1 was 6 weeks old .

Doing a bit of plant labelling helped and just being around to anwesr questions and chat generally

When we did it many years ago we really enjoyed it. My husband had designed and planted out our large plot from scratch (new property). We got lots of visitors, lots of compliments and lots of questions! Be ready for early arrivals and people hogging your time. Hope the weather is kind to you. Enjoy!

I was really pleased at 168 at 800! Where are you to get so many? We were told to expect about 70.

I second the plant labelling, I was a bit distracted so wobbled a bit on the plant names of some of it. Make sure there is a lock on the outside loo, so you are not fiddling around trying to make one ten minutes before everyone arrives.

If it is near me I will come along!

Midlands. It is a BIG event here. Over 1000 people turn up and we have one of the bigger gardens in a key location.

Bit worried about what state the grass will be in after all those people have walked over it!

Glad to see Humph on this thread!

I have aspirations to get into the Yellow Book - small but densely-packed urban garden - so it's fascinating to hear about others' experiences.

Ha - we moved so don't have the garden anymore. It had recently been on the on the telly and in magazines so I think that that upped the numbers.

We open our gardens for charity. The children sell plants fruit, veg, chutneys and cut flowers. We sometimes have croquet or boules the lawn. The chickens are always a big draw.

We have done guides or little activity sheets for children, stops them running riot in my garden. We also do cream teas which go down well. I love doing it.

I am always primping or is that pimping until about 10pm. I often garden in the dark!