Guest Blogger... June Tainsh Executive Director Helmsley Walled Garden
John Plant and Daphne Ellis from Rewela Hostas visited the garden on a parched Thursday morning in July in the middle of what became a period of almost 3 months without a drop of rain. We invited them to come to the garden looking to take advantage of their expert knowledge on Hostas and help with our identification of these versatile and beautiful plants in the shaded border, a long border edging the southernmost wall of the garden, facing north east.
I say help us with this task, when, in reality, we had absolutely no idea on any of their names, having acquired the plants from a variety of sources. A great number of them, Hosta Fortunei Albomarginata as one example, came from one of our volunteer’s gardens and it was fascinating to discover that we have 15 different varieties in this (very slightly) shaded part of the garden.
The need to identify our Hostas has become increasingly important as the garden grows in popularity; this summer, we expect around 30,000 visitors to enjoy this beautiful space. In 2024, we subscribed to Hortis, a software programme that will eventually enable us to record the names of all the plants in the garden accurately and share them with visitors. Of course, the software is only as effective as the person using it, so we are extremely grateful that this particular area, our shaded border, has been identified so expertly.
It may seem strange that a popular and extensive walled garden, around 5 acres, would not have this information already to hand. Indeed it is the most frequent request from visitors that they would like to have plants named, however Helmsley has evolved in a way quite distinct from many classic walled gardens across the country.
Originally the kitchen garden for Duncombe Park, the garden was abandoned from the 1950s for around 40 years. It had been, for 200 years, a hugely productive space, growing not only fruit, flowers and vegetables for Duncombe Park House, but also providing employment for around 40 families who lived in the town. In 1994, a local doctor’s wife, Alison Ticehurst, quite literally pushed open a gate and discovered a completely overgrown garden with dilapidated buildings. She single handedly began restoration of the garden, gaining the support of friends, family and people from the town of Helmsley who were entranced and moved by her enthusiasm.
Her vision was to create a beautiful garden for the local community to visit, but also for that garden to be a place of sanctuary and inclusion. Ahead of her time, Alison knew that gardening could be a healing and therapeutic activity and that working with nature was important for our health and well-being. Alison very sadly died in 1999, before she could see her dream become a reality, however the ethos of the garden remains exactly as she wished and we continue, to this day, to change lives through horticulture.
Consequently, the development of this beautiful restorative space has always been through the involvement of its community. In the early days, individuals contributed whatever they could, in terms of time, plants and even money to not only keep the garden going but to help transform it into the successful and well loved visitor attraction that it is today.
Helmsley continues to be a community garden in the very real sense of the word. In addition, it is a garden with very high horticultural standards and a visiting public that understand and support the work that we do. We now run a range of volunteering programmes, designed to meet the needs of our community and working with a diverse group of local people. We support individuals with learning difficulties, people who are struggling with stress and depression, those compromised through age and/or poor mobility and younger people looking to start a career in horticulture.
We also support and encourage the involvement of local primary schools, through Countryside Learning and welcome other charities, such as Ryedale Special Families, to use the garden for days out and picnics.
As a small, independent registered charity, we offer therapeutic horticulture in a safe, supportive environment, helping people improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing through contact with plants and gardening. It is by design that the garden is solely volunteer maintained by our 100-strong group of volunteers. They are supported by our small staff team of Garden Manger, Chris Cooper, Volunteer development worker, Robin Hardman, and two Volunteer Coordinators, Heather Thomas and Debs Lockett.
Engaging our volunteers to work together to create a beautiful space for our visitors, teaches them new skills and helps them to look at the world in a whole new way. For some of our volunteers, this is possibly one of the few places that they can feel included, productive, and needed. Every task undertaken has a direct impact on the garden. And of course, there are other important benefits for our volunteers, such as finding new friends, learning to work as part of a team, developing social skills and gaining a sense of community which is hugely beneficial for all of us.
We set high standards for all our volunteers, using Latin plant names and following best horticultural practice in everything we do. This commitment is central to the garden’s ethos: we are a garden first, and a destination for many. For local residents seeking a moment of calm, tourists visiting North Yorkshire, and keen gardeners looking for ideas and inspiration, the garden offers a space rooted in community. By bringing people together to create a beautiful, restorative place, we continue to change lives for the better.
We have a small shop at the garden, with an extensive range of interesting books, local crafts and garden items. Plants are a popular purchase for our visitors and we have several different species of plants grown and propagated at the garden by our volunteers. This is part of our most recent Community Lottery funded project, ‘Learning to Grow’ that involves those with learning differences in a supported session with volunteer mentors and staff.
These individuals gain enormous benefit from being involved in more supervised activities at the garden and enables them to contribute fully to the garden development with this support.
Our shop is manned by a staff team of two and a group of around 12 kiosk volunteers who enjoy working with our visiting public. Although this volunteer group is not directly involved in gardening, we value and support them in the same way as our garden volunteers, helping to improve their health and wellbeing through volunteering with us.
The garden is constantly evolving. New areas include a labyrinth, a sculpture trail, and an alpine garden, created as a show garden at Harrogate flower show in April 2024, winning a silver gilt medal for our volunteers. This year, we will be re-designing our garden of contemplation and physic garden to become a sensory garden with scented and tactile plants for our visitors to enjoy. A truly dynamic and evolving space, we look to include our volunteers in our plans as well as in the execution of projects.
One of our biggest challenges this year is the fundraiser we have just launched to completely rebuild one of our existing glasshouses. ‘Growing a Brighter Future’ is an ambitious project to create what will be a comfortable space for our volunteers, warm in winter and cool in summer. Our new glasshouse will enable us to provide quiet and private growing space for our volunteers to learn about plant propagation. There will also be a lovely bright, welcoming rest room where volunteers can take breaks on rainy days and enjoy a cuppa together. We rely on grant funding, generous donations and the support of our visiting public to run this wonderful garden and we are excited to see what we can achieve in the future.
Back to naming plants, when John and Daphne visited, the ground was actually too hard for us even to place small stick labels at our Hostas. With some hefty thunderstorms this week, Chris, our Garden Manager, and I are hoping we can get back to ensuring they are all correctly labelled. This will be a temporary solution as we add them to Hortis, with the help of our volunteers, and we are looking forward to enabling our visitors to be able to identify most, if not all of the plants in our glorious garden.
June Tainsh MHort
Executive Director
19th August 2026
Open Wednesday to Sunday from March to December, Helmsley Walled Garden is situated in the North York Moors National Park. A patchwork of small, intimate gardens planted up with beautiful displays of flowers, fruit, and vegetables. The garden is fully accessible. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome through-out the garden, café, and shop.
The award-winning Vine House Café provides a range of delicious cakes and lunches with a changing specials board and a collection of specially curated gins. Our garden shop and plant centre carry a range of plants propagated in the garden as well as gifts, cards, books, and a range of produce made in Yorkshire.
Groups and coach parties are welcome by prior arrangement. Wheelchairs are available on free loan so everyone can explore the garden and there are many benches so you can just stop and admire the view.
At Rewela Hostas, we are delighted to provide a diverse selection of Hostas suitable for collectors, experienced growers, and beginners alike. As a small family-run Hosta business we are more than happy to share our expert advice on everything related to Hostas. Shop now on our on-line shop for a wide range of Hostas, from new varieties to classics.
Shop for Hostas HERE
John Plant
Rewela Hostas
Comments