'It is wonderful to share the garden with others'

Cornwall boasts many famous gardens such as Caerhayes, Trewithen and Heligan, but also many beautiful private gardens and charity openings offer the public a chance to visit them.

"It is wonderful to share the garden with others," said Caroline Latham from the Trebartha Estate, near Launceston.

"When people come to this garden, whether they've come to see the flowers or the walk and everything else, we just want you to leave feeling better."

At just under 4,000 acres, the Trebartha Estate is a lot larger than your average garden although much is set aside as farm land.

It appears in the 1086 Domesday Book and was bought by the Latham Family in 1941.

The estate has been part of the National Garden Scheme (NGS) for 59 years and has just experienced a record number of visitors on one day.

The scheme gives visitors unique access to more than 3,300 private gardens all over the country - it has 64 gardens in Cornwall and last year its events raised £70,000 for nursing and health charities.

"We are thrilled," said Latham, who is Trebartha's NGS open day organiser, adding: "We thoroughly believe in the National Garden Scheme and all the wonderful, caring charities it supports.

"We have had such lovely feedback, and we want to raise the money for charity of course, but there is the feel-good factor of having such lovely feedback from so many visitors."

Among the visitors to Trebartha on a sun-drenched Sunday in May were Veronika Kolar and Thomas Bartl, on holiday from Austria, said there was no comparison between the estates back home and the Cornish gardens.

"This estate, it is a lot of woodland, a lot of rhododendrons, the lovely, lovely bluebells, they are like carpets of blue, unbelievable, isn't it?" said Kolar.

For those visiting you wind your way around the calm waters of the Swan Pool, then there is a short climb up a narrow rocky path that brings you to the Cascades where the Withy Brook crashes down the valley from Bodmin Moor full of energy and drama before it joins the River Lynher below.

Madeline and Peter Cox, from Truro, said it was the second time they had visited Trebartha.

"It is one of the best gardens you can visit as part of the NGS," said Peter Cox.

Trevor Kidby, from Bodmin, joked he could not open his garden to the public because he only had half a dozen containers outside his front door.

"Financially I would think in a year I would spend at least £100 (on the NGS)," he added.

The bright sunshine is not ideal for all the plants, in the old cellars of the now-demolished Trebartha Hall a luminous moss called Goblin's Gold is thriving.

Robert Latham said: "We are discovering the treasures we have, including nationally important lichens."

This year the estate is also due to open on 31 May and 16 October.

You do not have to have a garden as large as Trebartha to be added to the National Garden Scheme roster.

For a garden to be opened to the public it used to need to offer 45 minutes of interest, but now smaller gardens can be included in the scheme.

Libby Pidcock is one of Cornwall's Assistant County Organisers, she said: "The National Garden Scheme now recognises that most people with gardens are a lot less able to produce such a long tour.

"So you want to show people what you can do in a small garden and how much you can plant in there and how much pleasure and good it will do.

"Joining gardens together that are perhaps not that big, and opening on the same day, you buy a ticket that will get you to a couple or three gardens."

Last year the gardens in Cornwall that opened as part of the NGS raised more than £70,000 for nursing and health charities - nationally over £3.875m was raised.

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