Facebook LinkedLn Flickr Instagram Youtube Vimeo
LIFE BEYOND THE MILITARY – OUTDOORS
Donate
Back

As Spring arrives we finalise plans for new areas to support our patients.

March 31, 2021

The clocks have changed, days are getting lighter and longer, bulbs are coming into flower, trees are coming into bud and the seed sowing and pricking out continues. We hope to have enough plants soon to host another Farm Shop.

We are creating a formal vegetable bed in the Pears Walled Garden and already being asked when we will be planting out our pumpkins so they will make a return later this year.

We have sown our sweet peas seeds, kindly donated from Easton Walled Gardens, and will look forward to seeing them grow.

Thrive

Andy and I have completed an online course with THRIVE, on Social and Therapeutic Horticulture Practice. We are using the opportunity to reflect on our practice, further develop our service for the better and make links to other services. We both found the discussion on Attention Restoration Theory and garden design really thought provoking. This has coincided with an expansion to our therapeutic garden space.

Village Green

We are finalising plans to develop our therapeutic garden areas with an additional area adjacent to the greenhouse. Andy has designed an accessible space with a variety of raised beds and a pergola to provide shade. This will give us additional space to deliver sessions, and grow a wider variety of plants to provide a greater range of therapeutic activities for patients. The building and creation of this area will be a therapeutic activity in itself to engage both patients and staff, from building the raised beds to the final planting.

Most importantly though we hope this will provide a space to support the health and wellbeing of both patients and staff and where we can gather as a community again when it is safe to do so.

Neuro group – Reviving the courtyard garden

The end of the month, accompanied by a few sunny days, has enabled us to return to plans to engage patients with fully utilising this area. Emptying planters, mulching and re-filling with fresh compost was a more physically demanding task to work on: upper and lower limb strength, balance and co-ordination. However, it also provided space for social interaction and to work on cognitive processes such as following instruction, sequencing, judgement and discrimination. Removing spent crops from planters was a good way to practice hand-eye co-ordination and work on grip strength. We would like to encourage staff and patients to use this space outside of Horticultural Therapy sessions and hope to bring further news of how this progresses over the coming months.

Follow us here and on Instagram

Jane

HG adheres to the latest government and unit policy in preventing the spread of COVID-19

 

Andy and Jane with course certificates.

Illustration to show the new therapeutic garden area; 'Village Green'.

'Village Green'.

HighGround and Easton Sweet Pea tin.

HighGround Sweet Peas.