Here at West Dean, the extensive gardens and grounds give an enormous amount of pleasure to thousands of visitors every year. You tell us they provide inspiration for your art, ideas for your garden, a place for quiet contemplation and something new and beautiful to see and admire on every visit.
Whatever your reason for enjoying the gardens at West Dean, we know that for you, this is a special place.
Your support of the Gardens helps to ensure we can maintain and preserve them for your continued pleasure and for future generations. There are lots of ways you can help. Become a Friend of West Dean, leave a gift in your will, make a donation to our Glasshouse appeal to restore our beautiful complete set of Victorian Glasshouses to their former glory.
Thank you for your support of West Dean Gardens.
Can you help kick-start a gardener's career by making a donation to the Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain Trainee Horticulturalist Fund?
In the year that they retire, we are establishing a fund in honour of the tremendous legacy that Head Gardeners Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain have left in these gardens; to give someone at the start of their career, the chance they need to work towards managing a garden like West Dean.
Jim and Sarah have spent the last 28 years revitalising the magnificent landscape you see today and making West Dean Gardens one of the greatest restored gardens in the UK. After 28 years, they have decided it's time for a rest - hence their retirement in spring 2019.
Passionate about educating the gardeners of tomorrow, Jim and Sarah have long worked to close the nationwide skills gap and provide opportunities to build a fruitful career in horticulture. With this in mind, and to celebrate their great contribution to West Dean Gardens, we intend to establish a Trainee Horticulturalist post in their name.
Make a gift to the Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain Trainee Horticulturalist Fund and give someone the chance to build their career
Large gardens want people to come with experience, but it's so difficult to gain experience in the first place, its a catch 22. We want to set up a fund to help a person right at the beginning of their horticultural journey so they can one day manage large gardens like West Dean.
Sarah Wain
When you visit West Dean you tell us how much you admire Jim and Sarah and their transformation of the gardens. This is your opportunity to celebrate their legacy and help shape someone's horticultural career.
Through a complete annual cycle, the trainee will work with the West Dean team, learning about every aspect of the gardens and gaining practical experience that will act as a springboard for their career. They will be eligible to apply to the most prestigious horticultural training programmes in the country, including the RHS Diploma or Kew apprenticeship scheme; without this experience, they may not be considered.
The cost to deliver the Trainee Horticulturalist post next year is £17,400 which covers their salary, membership of the Professional Gardeners' Guild and vital health and safety training courses. Our ambition is, with your help, to secure enough money to fund the first three years of this programme, a total of £54,900 (including inflation). Your gift over the next three years will make a huge impact for someone entering the horticultural industry.
We know that West Dean Gardens are close to your heart. Please help us ensure that your most cherished places are cared for into the future by supporting the gardeners of tomorrow.
These magnificent Grade II Listed Glasshouses built during the 1890s by Foster and Pearson, were at the forefront of Victorian technology. Today they provide a nursery to almost every plant that makes its way into the gardens and somewhere for you to learn about growing and looking after plants. A precious piece of heritage that is our duty to preserve.
The support you have given over the past few years has been truly incredible. Can you help one last time and give the few remaining glasshouses the love and attention they need? Your donation will preserve a piece of local heritage, bring these glass wonders back to life, and ensure that the full set are restored, marking an end of this vital project.
Preserving our horticultural heritage
In 1991 our truly dedicated Head Gardeners, husband and wife team, Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain and their team of gardeners, embarked on an amazing journey to rebuild West Dean Gardens. It's been a lifetime's work.
After the Great Storm of 1987, one of the first jobs was to restore all 13 glasshouses to full working order. Jim and Sarah have re-created 26 different growing environments within the glasshouses, from traditional figs and melons, to new and exotic red hot chillies.
Giving back to the glasshouses
Thirty years on and the warm and damp conditions created in a glasshouse contribute to its own decay; timber struggles with wet and dry rot, cast iron battles against rust, and glass simply cannot withstand time and weather, causing a continuous cycle of renewal.
With more sophisticated building materials available today, and advances in the development of protective timber treatments and finishes, this time around the restoration should last for 50 years.
During your visits over the last few years, you will have seen work being done on glasshouses throughout the walled garden - with the most urgent ones being prioritised first.
We are delighted with the support we have received for our Victorian Glasshouses. We have just four glasshouses left to repair and hope to finish all of these by 2020. Our maintenance team are currently restoring the large Peach and Tomato house, leaving us the Melon & Cucumber house and the Aubergine and Cherry Tomato house to finish. We have just £29,000 left to raise to complete the remaining works.
If you would like to help save a piece of local heritage then please donate today. Your gift will mark the end of this vital restoration project, saving all 13 Victorian glasshouses.
Thank you for your support
Help restore our glasshouses - to donate online please click on the button below.
"Restoration of the Victorian Glasshouses is not simply about aesthetics and keeping up appearances, they are tools essential for the long term health and development of the Gardens. Please help in any way you can."
Toby Buckland, Gardener and TV presenter
Hand drawn map showing the layout of the glasshouses in the Walled Garden.
We have recently been overwhelmed by the generosity and enthusiasm of our Gardens supporters and are therefore not currently recruiting new volunteers. If you would like to be considered when we do need some extra help, please detail your experiences, skills and contact details in a note to: helen.dearing@westdean.org.uk
Alternatively you can write to us at:
The Edward James Foundation
West Dean
Chichester
West Sussex
PO18 0QZ
"I volunteered one day a week whilst studying for my RHS Level 2 Horticultural Diploma.
The gardens are renowned for their high standard and when I worked there I experienced those high standards for myself and learned a lot. Without any doubt volunteering at West Dean helped me pass my RHS diploma. I believe it must be highly valued by any student of horticulture.
The garden team always gave their time and shared their knowledge with me enthusiastically. I always finished my days at West Dean feeling I had learnt something new.
Volunteering at West Dean offered me a wide range of experience and learning including:
I will always be grateful to West Dean Gardens … for the positive and significant contribution they made to my career."
Leigh Glover, Volunteer
West Dean Gardens is part of a registered charity and its upkeep and care are only possible with the support of generous donors, friends and legacy gifts.
If you share our passion for the gardens and gardening
excellence,
please find
out how you can help support their upkeep.