After some disruption, thanks to the political party conference season and some major sporting events, Open Gardens is back in its usual weekday slot of 3.15pm on BBC TWO from next week - 22-26 October. Presented by garden experts Carol Klein and Joe Swift the series documents the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of some of the the hundreds of British gardeners who try desperately every year to win a place in the NGS' legendary Yellow Book.

Whilst the series uses the quest of being accepted by the NGS as its basis, it is the very human stories of some of the gardeners involved that lifts it from being just another gardening programme. Whether these people's experiences are tragic, heart warming or inspirational - it is their garden that has helped them get through it all.

For example, on Wednesday 24 October (a programme formerly billed to go out on Thursday 11 October) Carol Klein visits a garden in South West Devon where a particular personal story takes over from the normal programme narrative. Nev Pope and her family are designing a cliff-top memorial garden for son Jason who was kidnapped from a diamond mine in Angola five years ago. With no body and no definitive time of death - the family are hoping that finishing the garden for the NGS assessment will give them the release and closure needed.

Throughout the series a range of gardens from across the UK are visited, each featuring two gardens, one as it prepares to open its gates to the public for the first time in 2007, the second, a hopeful, as it strives to pass the strict criteria needed to be one of the new "Open Gardens" of 2008.  Assessing is ruthless, as around only half of the 800 applicants will succeed in gaining a place in the Yellow Book, turning their private paradises into Open Gardens.