Last week, we delved into the making of the Butchart Garden in Victoria, Canada—a private garden which is completely open to the public. This is not common. For the most part, public gardens are public, and private gardens are private—open only to the enjoyment of the owners, their families and friends.

A public garden is defined by the American Public Gardens Association as: “An institution that maintains collections of plants for the purposes of public education and enjoyment, in addition to research, conservation, and higher learning. It must be open to the public and the garden’s resources and accommodations must be made to all visitors. Public gardens are staffed by professionals trained in their given areas of expertise and maintain active plant records systems.”

On the other hand, a private garden is ‘a type of Urban Green Spaces Areas in immediate vicinity of private (privately owned or rented) houses, cultivated mainly for ornamental purposes and/or non-commercial food production’ and is not usually open to the public.

While Jennie Butchart, creator of the Butchart Gardens was clear right from the start that she wanted as many people as possible to see and enjoy her gardens, not all owners have been so open. Or even if they wanted to, didn’t know how to go about it. But that would be such a loss, because some of these private gardens are spectacular.

And hence, the various initiatives in many parts of the world which try to make private gardens accessible to the public.

For instance, in the US, the Garden Conservancy organizes Open Day programmes. This institution is a nationwide community of gardeners and garden enthusiasts who teach and learn about gardens. Believing that there is no better way to improve as a gardener than by seeing and experiencing firsthand a wide range of gardens, they organize these Open Days, which since 1995, have seen ‘more than 1.4 million visitors into thousands of inspired private landscapes—from urban rooftops to organic farms, historic estates, to innovative suburban lots—in 41 states’. These events are curated and ticketed and open up some of America’s best private gardens to the public for a few days. The organization even brings out an annual publication—‘The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Directory’ This is a yearly guide to hundreds of private gardens across the United States. The directory includes information on the gardens’ types, such as organic, scenic, or historic, and how and when they can be visited.

In the UK,  London Parks & Gardens organizes the Open Gardens London event every year, helping visitors enjoy hallowed private London gardens including roof gardens, city farms, allotments, spaces steeped in history, and much more. A ticket to the event gives visitors access to every garden on display across the whole weekend, with children under 12 allowed in for free!

Under the Open Gardens South Australia programme, garden owners generously open their gardens for a weekend. The NGO helps owners plan and promote their opening. Some of the ticket money is usually donated to a charity of the owner’s choice

In Ireland, the Gardens Open initiative of Garden.ie lists around 300 gardens open for visiting, some year-round, others by appointment.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens, previously known as the Mughal Gardens are not private. However, they are not open to the public all the time. Constructed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1917 in the traditional Persian Charbagh style the Gardens were renamed Amrit Udyan in 2023. The 12-acre beautifully cultivated gardens are open to visitors in Feb-March and Aug-Sept every year and a popular tourist spot in New Delhi.

India has some large public gardens, but no well-known large private gardens—certainly none open to the public. Maybe it is time for some people with the means and the green thumbs to create such green oasis in our crowded, polluted, frantic cities. That would be social responsibility indeed!

–Meena