Thanks for the memories

Winner, with his Victorian masters and teddy-bear collection, and Gilbert & George, bequeathing plates and photographs of their bodily emissions to a grateful nation, are only two examples of a new breed of benefactors. They are usually men in the public eye, with no children, who, in a spirit of generosity and tax efficiency - and perhaps with more than a dusting of vanity - have decided to cut out the middleman of future generations and make their own arrangements for securing their place in history.

Sir Roy Strong, the 74-year-old art historian, waspish diarist and gardener, may not be opening his drawers for inspection, like Gilbert & George - he has already given the Fashion Museum in Bath many of the dandyish outfits that he wore in his time as director of first the National Portrait Gallery, then the Victoria & Albert Museum - but he is leaving the Laskett, the Herefordshire house and garden he shared for more than 30 years with his late wife, the theatre, opera and ballet designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, to the Vivat Trust. Strong is the patron of the charitable body, which was set up to preserve historic buildings - the properties pay their way by being rented out to holidaymakers.

The Laskett has 23 rooms - only two are currently bedrooms, but Strong says there could be eight once his possessions have been cleared - and there is a two-bedroom cottage (called, rather grandly, the Folly) in the corner of the garden, which he has renovated. It will be available to rent next spring.

The garden is 3½ acres of theatricality and plantsmanship, beguiling vistas, ornaments and memorials not only to various markers in the couple's careers, but to their love for each other and the place itself. But why should anybody be interested in it in the future? "It is a monument to a certain period, quite an interesting creation by two people who were not inconsiderable figures in the arts," says Strong, who has gone into overdrive with organising his posthumous affairs since a bout of pneumonia in the summer. He reckons that, as long as he doesn't live to an ancient age, with a need for high-level nursing, there should be enough money left in his will to cover the administrative costs of the property, making the handover to the trust "seamless". As to the garden, he insists that his creation should not be allowed to mummify, but should change and develop over time. "It should not be a static ghost," he says. "Gardening is a transient, mutant art."

This is a theory that Fergus Garrett, head gardener since 1993, and now chief executive, of Great Dixter, in East Sussex, would agree with. He even plants stuff he knows that Christopher Lloyd, his friend, former employer and owner of Great Dixter, who died in 2006, aged 84, would have hated. "Have them back after I've gone," he was told.

Although Lloyd never married, in his lifetime the world-famous garden and Grade-I, Lutyens-restored medieval house teemed with horticultural students and friends. This, as much as the famous long border, was a feature he didn't want to disappear on his death. "He thought, 'I've left it in good condition. There is a bright future and I have to address it'," says Garrett. Shortly before Lloyd's death, a trust was set up to ensure the garden had a viable future. Leaving it to Garrett and his young family was perhaps the obvious approach in terms of legacy, but this would have been impractical because of taxation and the cost of upkeep.

That doesn't mean Garrett isn't still involved. "I always said I would love to be a part of keeping it alive. It has to be gardened in a certain style: if we changed to a Regency park with evergreen borders, it would still have a bit of charm, but would lose much of its life."

With the help, last year, of a £4m heritage lottery fund award to buy out a niece who had inherited 60% of the property, but didn't want to live there, the Great Dixter Charitable Trust now owns the whole place, and can comfortably think of tomorrow rather than scrabble around behind sofa cushions looking for spare change to pay for its upkeep. The garden remains open to the public, and with new student accommodation, it is becoming even more of a place of learning than it was in Lloyd's day. "We will never have to worry about where our next gardeners come from," says Garrett.

If you have spent years creating what you consider to be a special home or garden that you would like the public to admire, the National Trust is the obvious first port of call should the idea of setting up a trust, with executors and a board, seem daunting. Just don't expect the organisation to welcome your three-bedroom semi in Slough with open arms, and start to discuss opening hours and whether you want to leave your collection of china animals in situ.

"We have about 50 to 100 wills with a house, or part of a house that we share with other benefactors, left to us every year," says Gill Raikes, the trust's director of fundraising. "There are about two or three a decade where we take them on and open them to the public." Otherwise, the properties are rented out, used as holiday lets or, if not at all suitable, and after discussion with the executors of the deceased's estate, sold off, with the proceeds used by the trust to fund other areas of its work. If the executors are adamant that the house must not be sold, then "we would have to turn it down".

Even a famous owner is no guarantee that the National Trust will take on a property. It recently turned down the late Laura Ashley's home in Wales because the lane leading to it is too narrow for coaches. One legacy that did make the grade is a Georgian-fronted two-bedroom house in Wandsworth, south London. It was bequeathed by the Kenyan-born writer and artist Khadambi Asalache, who died in 2006, aged 71, and had covered the interior in wonderfully intricate Moorish-style fretwork, carved from scavenged wood.

Raikes says that Asalache wanted people to "explore what he found so special in multicultural England". It is an unusual property for the trust to take on, not only because of its cultural context, but because it did not come with an endowment to ensure its self-sufficiency. On the other hand, Raikes says, "it is a very special place". Funds have been raised for a projected opening in 2010, with a contribution of £1m from the trust itself.

So, if you are thinking of leaving your property to the nation, what should you do? "Talk to the body you are thinking of leaving it to in advance," says Raikes. "They can advise. If they are going to keep it and open it to the public, it is wonderful to explore with those who are leaving it, and their memories of it, before it is too late."

As for Strong, when the Laskett's garden opens for two days a week from April to July next year, he is amused that he will have a preview of things to come: "I'm going to see in action what will happen when I'm not here."

For further information, visit vivat.org.uk , greatdixter.co.uk and nationaltrust.org.uk

Posterity: the bottom line

So you think your home, garden and collections should be saved for the nation? What should you do?

Target the body you would like to leave your home to, writes Emma Wells. Trusts that can hold property include the National Trust (nationaltrust.org), the Landmark Trust (landmarktrust.org.uk) and the Vivat Trust. If your house is really spectacular or significant, and is accepted, you can discuss the gifting, the terms on which it will be open to the public and which administration costs the trust will cover - but you'll probably need to provide a hefty endowment to ensure its financial self-sufficiency.

If a large trust knocks you back, you could set up your own. This route is seldom used. You will need an experienced property solicitor to guide you through the process, and reserves of wealth to cover the maintenance of the house, garden and staff in perpetuity.

Alternatively, you could set up a charitable trust, where grants and donations from the public might keep your home on display. Visit direct.gov.uk for information on how to qualify. Alternatively, building preservation trusts may also be interested in taking on your property. Go to ukapt.org.uk for further advice.

THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT

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