If you're looking for some green-fingered inspiration as the Chelsea Flower Show approaches later this month, visiting a spring garden will offer blossoms and blooms galore, from tulips in all colours to wisteria arches to walk under.

The National Garden Scheme open gardens come in all sizes, from traditional cottage gardens through to sweeping vistas, not to mention there are two beautiful Kent gardens opening in May and June where you can follow in Jane Austen’s footsteps in celebration of the writer’s 250th anniversary.

BOUGHTON MONCHELSEA PLACE, near Maidstone

Boughton Monchelsea Place offers a magnificent vista over its own deer park and across the Weald from its elevated position, where you can sit and enjoy the view. In May, the garden is known for its displays of wisterias that twine on and around the house and gardens. There are intimate walled gardens to explore, including a courtyard herb garden, orchard and romantic herbaceous borders.

Details: Sunday, May 11 from 2pm to 5.30pm. Adult tickets cost £5 and can be booked online here.

GODMERSHAM PARK, near Ashford

This year marks the 250th birthday of novelist Jane Austen, who is believed to have based her third novel, Mansfield Park, on Godmersham Park. The estate was inherited by Jane’s brother, Edward Knight, and the writer is known to have stayed here for several weeks at a time, with scenes and characters from the local village inspiring some of her best-known work. The rose garden will be in bloom, and the 24-acre site includes herbaceous borders, a walled kitchen garden and restored Italian and swimming pool gardens.

Details: Sunday, June 8 from 1pm to 5pm. Adult tickets cost £8 and can be booked here.

GOODNESTONE PARK, Wingham

Another frequent haunt for Jane Austen was Goodnestone Park, as her brother married a daughter of the house and she would often visit the stately home to see them. It is believed that Austen started writing Pride and Prejudice during one of her visits to the house. The estate covers 14 acres, with specimen trees, a mature woodland area, a 1920s rockery and a walled garden, with some walls dating back to the 17th century.

Details: Thursday, May 22 from 9am to 5pm. Adult tickets cost £9 and can be booked here.

HURST HOUSE, Penshurst

The garden at Hurst House is a Victorian walled garden under restoration since 2021, with a 1902 Thomas Messenger vinery and glasshouse, a beautiful formal garden with far reaching views and filled with perennials, roses and other unusual plants. The wildflower meadow is an ongoing project and a native woodland was planted in 2022 with a Woodland Trust grant.

Details: Saturday, May 10 and Sunday, May 11 from 10am to 4.30pm. Adult tickets cost £10 and can be booked here.

KENFIELD HOUSE, Petham

Kenfield House is sited in an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) and boasts a white garden, a wild garden with an orchard and a spiral lawn. There are several flowering borders of perennials and shrubs and many wild flowers. The influence of Marian Boswall can be seen in the design and planting plan when she recreated this garden in 2012.

Details: Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25 from 11am to 4pm. Adult tickets cost £7.50 and can be booked here.

OAK COTTAGE AND SWALLOWFIELDS NURSERY, Elmsted

An abundance of interesting and unusual herbaceous perennials will be for sale in the nursery at the end of this beautiful half-acre garden. The curving lawns frame planted borders and the greenhouses also contain species pelargoniums and a salvia collection.

Details: Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24 from 11am to 4pm. Adult tickets cost £6 and can be booked here.

RIVERHILL HIMALAYAN GARDENS, Sevenoaks

This beautiful 12-acre hillside garden has extensive views across the Weald of Kent, divided between formal terraces and natural woodland. It has been privately owned by the Rogers family since 1840 and has an impressive collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and specimen trees. There is also a recently restored Edwardian rock garden with an extensive fern collection, herbaceous borders, a vegetable garden, a hedge maze and an adventure playground.

Details: Wednesday, May 7 and Wednesday, June 18 from 10am to 5pm. Adult tickets cost £13 and can be booked here.

WHITSTABLE JOY LANE GARDENS

There are 10 gardens to see in this seaside neighbourhood, including that of writer Francine Raymond, who will be hosting local plant nursery stalls and ticket sales in her front garden at 19 Joy Lane. Visitors can also see returning gardens of artists Ric Horner and Annette Bane, while designer Sarah Morgan, whose garden was on BBC’s Gardeners’ World, will be opening her back garden for the first time.

Details: Sunday, May 18 from 10am to 4pm. Adult tickets cost £7 and can be purchased on the gate.