More Gardens and Health Celebrations

The Gardens and Health Celebrations Continue

Continuing our Gardens and Health campaign, several more volunteers across the country opened their garden gates and hosted a local community group to come and enjoy a visit, and the health benefits that gardening and garden-visiting can bring.

Here’s a round up of some of the activities that took place...

Dalswinton House, Dumfriesshire

The day before Sarah’s official Garden Opening at Dalswinton she welcomed a visit from the Dumfries Bethany Christian Trust’s drop-in centre. They came and looked around the garden and then they had a special tea with home-baked scones and cakes.

Sarah said “We laughed all the way including when we almost got stuck in the lift with a wheelchair! You would never have imagined that several of them had seriously debilitating, some physical and some mental, problems back at home.

I hope that the quiet and the birdsong and the teas and the laughter may have given some respite to them. It was lovely to be able to offer it”

Ardmaddy Castle Garden, Argyll

Minette Struthers our District Organiser in Argyll and Lochaber hosted a class of young students from Argyll College.

They had a wonderful visit learning about azaleas, rhododendrons and the handkerchief tree. They even went off through a field of sheep with a wheelchair which was a particularly welcome change for that young girl.

Looking at the hand-drawn pictures that the children sent to Minette after their visit, the joy and enthusiasm simply shines out of the pages.

Abbotsford, Roxburghshire

Pippa, the Garden Development Manager has been working young people in long term unemployment, people with complex needs and people returning to work after a prolonged absence.

Participants get involved in all sorts of activities including making journals and using quill pens, sensory work in the gardens and woodlands, creating new habitats, and discussing, exploring, recording and sharing feelings.

Other sessions explore plants, closely observing their structure, different qualities, characters and uses and include planting and seed collecting as well as tasting and sensory exploration. Sounds like they’re doing some truly wonderful work.