The hugely popular Brighton & Hove Open Gardens in aid of The Sussex Beacon will take place on Saturday and Sunday 29 and 30 June from 11am-5pm each day.

More than 70 private gardens and community spaces are participating, from small city  courtyards to expansive  open spaces in Hove, Montpelier, Fiveways and Roundhill, Preston Park and Surrenden, Stanmer, East of Brighton, Rottingdean and Newhaven. Many of the gardeners will be providing scrummy tea, cakes and other refreshments – details of these are available on the website. Gardens will be listed in areas with suggested trail ideas, which will be detailed in the pop-up map, given with each purchased ticket.

Among the gardens that are new for 2013 is The Grace Eyre Foundation Garden in Montpelier. This is a therapeutic disabled-friendly garden, which has been maintained by the service users for the past couple of years, while award-winning Moulsecoomb Primary School, has a myriad of things to look at, including Saxon and Neolithic roundhouses, an orchard, fairy tale forest, world garden, World War II garden, traditional hedgerows, ponds with frogs and newts as well as a beetle hotel, labyrinth and willow dome.

As Gardens Co-ordinator, Bridgette Saunders, said: “Almost 18 years ago the seed for the Brighton & Hove Open Gardens was sown, with a small number of local gardens opening to raise funds for The Sussex Beacon. The event has since blossomed into one of the largest open gardens schemes in Sussex. This year an exciting variety of inspiring and enchanting gardens and community spaces, more than ever before, are opening for the 2013 weekend.”

The event raises money for the Sussex Beacon, an HIV Charity based in Brighton. You can plan your visit online – gardens are being added to this website every week so keep coming back. For more details, please visit sussexbeacon.org.uk/opengardens

Tickets cost £10 in advance and £12 during the weekend, under 12s go free. Tickets can be bought online at sussexbeacon.org.uk/opengardens. You will get a pop-up map of the gardens through the post with your ticket.