What are gardens for? Join a panel of fantastic speakers to find out at our Chelsea Fringe event!

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for OGSW at the Chelsea Fringe - an exciting debate hosted by Coutts on 21 May at 6pm. We'll be celebrating gardens of every kind and shape, and exploring the value and purpose of planted spaces and their impact on our lives.

Buy 'What are gardens for?' tickets online from 10am on 21 March

Read our blog to find out more about the event's panellists, Professor Nigel Dunnett of Sheffield University, Chief Executive of Thrive Kathryn Rossiter, horticultural consultant Pilar Medrano Dell and urban organic champion Claire Ratinon.

Guests will have a chance to explore the Coutts Skyline Garden with executive chef Peter Fiori, and will be served canapés prepared by the Coutts kitchen. The Skyline Garden is participating in Open Garden Squares Weekend via a public ballot, which opens on 3 April at 10am (entry via the OGSW website).

Photo: Beech Gardens at the Barbican, designed by Nigel Dunnett (© Graham Willson)

Don't forget - the ballot to visit the garden at 10 Downing Street closes tomorrow (21 March) at 12 noon. Enter online now!

If you miss out on the Downing Street and Coutts ballots this year, you can still explore some of the best private gardens in the city during Open Garden Squares Weekend. The majority of gardens are not normally open to the public and offer exclusive access for ticket holders, but we are also proud to present six 'star’ community gardens, which open more frequently.

Schedule in a visit to Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses, Culpeper Community Garden, The Phoenix Garden, St Mary’s Secret Garden, The Skip Garden, Global Generation or Walworth Garden to find out how we can all work together to create and nurture unusual local green spaces.

Photo: Walworth Garden © Graham Willson

Buy Open Garden Squares Weekend tickets now at advance prices - just £15 for adults with discounts for students, young people and groups. Under 12s go free!

When you buy a ticket online, you will receive an e-ticket by email. You can show this on your phone or print it out to use over the Weekend. If you buy an advance ticket, you will receive a guidebook by post in May (UK only). One guidebook will be posted out per single ticket, and then one per two tickets thereafter.

We are also delighted to announce that Huw Richards, decribed in The Guardian as "the future of gardening” will be appearing during Open Garden Squares weekend. With over 100,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel Huw's Nursery and his first book Veg in One Bedjust published, Huw is an online horticultural sensation. Copies of Veg in One Bed are now available via the London Parks & Gardens Trust website.

Photo: DK Images