Following our £5,000 sponsorship of the St Elizabeth Hospice garden design competition – part of our GRO1000 Community Outreach Programme – the winning designs have been built and the garden is now open for the residents and staff to use.
St Elizabeth Hospice was looking for young people in the Suffolk and Norfolk area with a creative eye to take part in their Help the Hospice Grow – garden design competition to provide ideas for a new area of the charity’s beautiful garden. They received around 100 entries from local Primary and Secondary schoolchildren and students.
There were so many brilliant ideas, that they had to pick six winners, rather than the original one! The judges felt that there were elements from each design that they liked and which they felt would fit in with the needs of the Hospice. The result is a garden that is interactive, accessible and colourful for the Hospice patients, visitors and staff.
The new garden area incorporates raised beds for patients to tend to, a quiet reflection area, a vegetable plot, children’s play area and a summer house. Individual features include a statue made by day care patients, coloured bricks to brighten up the garden and add further colour and features that will delight all the senses, using lights, scent and colour.
The garden was officially opened by hospice Chief Executive, Mark Millar (above), and the four schoolchildren from Sproughton Primary School whose ideas were incorporated into the design of the garden (from left to right) Bailey Scannell, Bethany McCauley, Emily Relton and Connie Hughes, along with Vicky Page, head of the Scotts Miracle-Gro UK Community Outreach Programme.
Andrew Bruce, Facilities Manager at the Hospice, said: “Our garden is at the heart of the hospice and is loved by everyone who comes here – patients, families, staff, volunteers and visitors. Patients and families in particular spend a lot of time in the garden, and the new space has been created to take into consideration their needs, including wheelchair access.
Mr Bruce added: “We couldn’t have created our beautiful garden without the support and generosity of all our supporters.”
