Helmsley Walled Garden

A wonderful walled garden. From the outside it does not look big but the walled garden is huge. Greenhouses, kitchen gardens, orchard and a beautiful central border section, this is done by volunteers. £10 entry and £11 with gift aid. Other ticket options available but see the website. On site cafe available to. You can also buy fruit and veg grown for a donation. Plenty in August / Sept / Oct. See the ticket office on arrival. Allow several hours and take a picnic. No onsite parking but a 5 minute walk there is a pay and display which is also for the castle.

Gorgeous community garden just off the centre of Helmsley. Wide variety of planting and areas of pocket gardening from formal to nice wild areas. Community growing plots in places as well areas of orchard. The colour was lovely when we were there in mid July especially in the herbaceous borders. Staff were very friendly and helpful, and there is a small garden shop as well as a cafe. Overall, well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Visited as we had a 2 for 1 Gardeners World voucher which allowed 2 in for £10. This can ONLY be used on Fridays so please be aware of this. In one way it is good as this is market day but it can mean finding somewhere to park a nightmare. We visited at the beginning of May. Not the best time for going as most of the spring bulbs and blossom have gone over but we knew this would be the case. Having said that there was still some pops of colours around and it's nice to see the Summer plants starting to get ready to do their thing. Some interesting sculptures dotted about. I am not into modern sculpture but I was drawn to these. The staff/volunteers that we met in the garden were very pleasant and knowledgeable. All in all a very pleasant way to spend an hour on a good day. Not sure we would have paid the full price of £10 per person though There is a cafe which can be used without paying to go in the gardens. It is set up in the old vinery and looks very pleasant. We did not visit on this occasion. There is a small area selling plants and a small gardening shop. We have given only four stars because of 1) the length of time it took to pay to get in (someone at the front signing up to something - having a second volunteer around for this would have been most useful!) 2) being overrun by dogs in one area!! We couldn't get passed them! But this is the owners fault not the Gardens I guess 3) we would have liked more labels on the perennials 4) we couldn't enter the Orchid House as someone was doing a painting class. So disappointing.