EVEN those in wheelchairs can enjoy much of the Middleham Festival, including some of the gardens, thanks to a couple to whom freedom for the disabled and beautiful surroundings are very important.

More than ten years ago, Keith Murgatroyd's life dramatically changed when he became paralysed from the neck down. But he and his wife, Nancy, are still very much a team.

He advised on how to make the Middleham Key Centre - a major venue for festival events - accessible to the disabled, visiting it frequently in his wheelchair. He designed some of the main features in their own garden, and he takes tremendous pleasure in his wife's new career as an artist.

Her exuberant, joyful floral studies belie the dark times that the couple have worked through together. She shocked herself last year when she allowed some of her sadness and aggression to be expressed through her first set of abstracts.

But soon she returned to her main source of inspiration - the garden she and her husband have created over the past ten years. And that garden will be among those which are open to the public this weekend.

Those in wheelchairs can enjoy access to every part of it, including the orangery that Mr Murgatroyd designed. There are also many seats so that anyone can sit down and simply enjoy the garden.

"So much that is done for the disabled is ugly," said Mrs Murgatroyd. "We didn't want to see a ramp anywhere. We wanted it to look normal and good. There are raised areas in the garden so that Keith can see everything from his wheelchair."

She added that things should not be devalued just to make them accessible. And this continues throughout the ground-floor of the house, with Mr Murgatroyd's route to the garden going through his wife's studio and past many of her paintings.

These often show the trugs and pots that she works with in the garden along with many of the flowers, and especially her beloved irises. For her, even the most mundane can become exciting.

"Gardening and painting are in some ways similar creative processes. You start with a blank canvas and an idea. You build on the plan which inevitably changes. You work and work until the whole thing starts to take off and gain its own identity: the accidental bits are always the best," she said. "Whatever you have got, you should try to enrich it."

She added that her paintings were all about enriching people's lives.

"They are about engaging people and helping them to look at things in a different way."

For both of them, the garden is like a secret place, somewhere they can be surrounded by nature with all the wildlife going on around them.

Mrs Murgatroyd added: "In this part of Middleham, you have to get used to the owls depositing rook feathers in the garden. I have moved towards organic gardening simply because it is easier and it works."

The first step was to stop using slug pellets: "It was terrible at first. But each year that I haven't used any slug pellets, the fewer slugs and snails I have had.

"Now you can hear the thrushes bashing away. I think the better environment there is for the birds, the less problems you get. When you get the wildlife in balance, the better it is.

"Ponds make a difference. We have one for wildlife and one for the fish. So there are loads of frogs and toads."

There are also lots of bees: "I try to have things in flower all the time for the bees, and especially when they first appear after winter. They like anything with a simple shaped flower. If you grow mostly sophisticated flowers with hundreds of petals, it is difficult for them."

For the birds, she leaves many seeds on plants and this attracts the goldfinches in autumn and winter.

IT is a garden which remains interesting all the year round not only for the strong, underlying artistic structure but because of the variety of textures and colours. At this time of the year it is at its best with so much in bloom, including roses, clematis, philadelphus, nepeta, lavender, salvias and delphiniums.

Visitors can follow this riot of colour into her gallery and see for themselves how the garden has inspired her. Her home is near the Old School Arts Workshop.

There will be a map to direct visitors to other interesting Middleham gardens, including two which are in the National Garden Scheme (Hill House and Jasmine House). On Sunday morning, there is an unusual plant fair at the Key Centre.

This weekend there is also an opportunity to go inside the ancient church at Coverham and enjoy the flower festival there. And the garden at Coverham Abbey is open with teas being served.

Admission to the Coverham flower festival and garden is £3. Tickets to the Middleham open gardens cost £2.

* For full details about the Middleham Festival, see page 13