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A private garden that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh is opening tomorrow for a rare public viewing. A. A. Milne moved to Hartfield, in Sussex, in 1925 with his wife and son Christopher, who became the basis for the character Christopher Robin.

Then followed his most successful works, gaining inspiration from subtle pockets in the nearby Wealden countryside and Ashdown Forest in particular. When Milne first moved to Hartfield, he purchased a small farm on the northern tip of Ashdown Forest. Cotchford Farm will open tomorrow to raise money for the Ashdown Forest Foundation.

Robin St Clair Jones, chairman of the foundation, said the event offered a "very rare opportunity" to explore gardensnot normally accessible to the public. The gardens still have statues and memorabilia from when Milne owned Cotchford. St Clair Jones said organisers are hoping to inspire young Brits to take an interest in outdoor spaces and storytelling, 100 years after Winnie-the-Pooh's publication.

He said: "Just the storytelling, wandering around the places where AA Milne wrote the books and the Heffalump Trap - all these wonderful places that you can go and visit, which are real places - the Hundred Acre Wood, it's all there.

"We desperately need funds to protect the wildlife, to protect the rare flora and fauna and to manage 10 square miles of natural space where you can wander freely.

"I think it's going to be highly unlikely we'll be doing this again anytime soon. It's only thanks to the generosity of the owners of Cotchford Farm that we were able to do these two events."

The event this weekend will include access to the gardens, stalls, refreshments, and activities. It is sold out, and another event in September has a waiting list.

Most famous of all is Pooh Sticks bridge, where the game was first invented by Milne and his son and featured in the books.

The game is first mentioned in the 1928 novel The House at Pooh Corner, where Pooh accidentally drops a pine cone down the upstream side of the bridge and creates the game after seeing it appear at the other end.

It's a simple game in which the winner is determined by whose stick appears first on the downstream side. The bridge itself was built in 1907 and originally called Posingford Bridge.

Other popular Winnie the Pooh tourist destinations include Galleon's Lap, The Enchanted Place, the Heffalump Trap and Eeyore's Sad and Gloomy Place.

There is also a shop named Pooh Corner in Hartfield Village which sells a variety of books, sweets and souvenirs related to the literary classics.