Off-site visits prove to be a big success

February 28, 2019

The main structure of the greenhouse is finished, and we now await final fixings for water and heating.

Fruit Tree Pruning

We have continued to do off-site visits with patients to a farm very local to Stanford Hall. The owner Martyn has kindly offered use of his orchard to prune apple and pear trees. This has been a great activity to do with a wide variety of patients and provided an opportunity to work on standing tolerance, balance, hand function, upper body strength and ability to follow instructions. It has been a chance to get away from the clinical environment and spend time outdoors, as well as learning a new skill. We’ve had really good feedback which has been very rewarding for us.

Tim Jeffries Director of Darlac tools has kindly donated a number of tools, including extendable tools for pruning, which have been put to very good use. We are very grateful for his generosity.

Vegetable garden

Our patients in Neurology have expressed an interest in growing herbs and vegetables in their courtyard garden and we have moved several wooden planters there in preparation for this. We are keen to introduce more sensory planting into the garden and this will be an ideal way of doing this as well as providing ingredients for cooking sessions.

Apothecary plant research

We are continuing to gather information on our shortlist of plants for the Apothecary plant bed with the help of some of the patients and staff. For some patients this has been out of their own interest and for other others a means of working on cognitive skills.

Gardening Volunteers

We are in the process of recruiting Gardening Volunteers to help us maintain the therapeutic garden areas and look forward to working with our volunteers later this Spring and to starting our growing season soon…

Darlac tools in action

Medlar tree after pruning

Darlac Tools in the orchard

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