Chelsea garden takes shape in new hospice home

A garden that won a gold medal at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be replanted at a hospice.

It was designed by Katherine Holland, sponsored by garden charity Project Giving Back, and was described as "so peaceful and lovely" by Queen Camilla, when she visited it, in situ, at the show.

Its new home will be at the Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice in Moggerhanger, Bedfordshire.

The Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden included a number of sensory and fragrant plants - "designed to a green hug", Ms Holland's said.

Volunteers visit several times a week to look after the gardens at the hospice.

One of those, John McPherson, who was busy digging in some of the new flowers from the Chelsea garden, said the patients come out when they can "and it's nice for them to see the gardens".

But he said "it's also nice for the relatives because quite often all the family will come", and he said they could sit in the garden while others were at their loved one's bedside.

Its creator, Ms Holland, said the garden was "designed to be an embracing green hug, where you feel safe to come and sit and either talk about your grief with other people or just sit and reflect on a loved one you've lost".

Natalie Smith, quality manager at St John's, said it was "a privilege" to have the Chelsea Flower Show garden at the hospice.

"It's been a real team effort to bring it to life for the patients," she said.

"Hospices have a stereotype that they're sad places... but what the garden does is allow people to open up conversations to talk about grief - and it makes people a bit more comfortable to talk about it - gardens open up the communications for that."

Speaking about the new Chelsea addition, Ms Smith added: "It'll have a big impact on both the staff's and the patients' wellbeing."

The garden's designer Ms Holland studied maths at university and worked as a financial risk manager before following her green-fingered passion and retraining.

She studied for her garden design diploma at the London College of Garden Design based in Kew Gardens.

Project Giving Back, which sponsored the garden, is a grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It was started by philanthropists who remain anonymous.

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