Get out into your gardens during National Gardening Week!
Millions of people across the UK and beyond are getting ready to celebrate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III on May 6.
In the lead up to the coronation, the Royal Horticultural Society is kicking off National Gardening Week and is encouraging people to create their own coronation container to celebrate King Charles and his love of horticulture.
St Margaret’s is among the organisations supporting the week, which takes place from May 1 to May 7, and raises awareness of the difference that gardens and gardening can make to people’s lives.
We spoke to Caroline Slocombe, Gardener at St Margaret’s Hospice about how the hospice is supporting wildlife and why she would encourage people to get out into their gardens during National Gardening Week.
The King is known as a champion of the environment and a supporter of the nation’s passion for gardening. How do we follow those values here at St Margaret’s Hospice?
“It’s well known that King Charles has a love of gardening and is passionate about conservation, and we follow his ethos here at St Margaret’s.
“We try to do as much organic gardening as possible and don’t use pesticides very often at all. We do everything that we can to encourage insects into the garden by providing food and homes for them. Insects are declining massively so we really try to help them!
“We get a wide variety of insects coming into our garden. Some, like aphids, aren’t the gardener’s friend but must be tolerated to a certain degree because these insects are food for other beneficial insects such as ladybirds and hoverflies. We have an abundance of ants which attract green woodpeckers as they are their food source and it’s just an accumulative effect with lots of insects bringing more animals and wildlife into the garden as the seasons go by.
“Last year we had Hummingbird Hawk Moths here for the first time which was just amazing because although they are not endangered, they’re not common to see everywhere so to attract them here at the hospice was really nice. We also get lots of bees and butterflies here and it just increases year on year which is great.”
What projects are you and the team currently working on in the garden?
We are in the process of improving various areas of the garden at the Taunton Hospice as we know how important our gardens are for our patients and their families.
In the car park, there’s a lot of flower beds which are in need of re-planting to reduce maintenance, so we are making some improvements to those. We’ve recently added a new hedge to the centre of the car park and are working to upgrade the borders and rejuvenate the old shrubs. We initially started this work in the areas of the garden where patients usually spend their time and now, we are continuing this around to the car park.
We have also recognized that we don’t have enough time to use the whole allotment space for vegetables as it’s a huge space, so we’ve decided we’re going to grow more wildflowers there to attract insects into the garden. We want to make sure we utilise the space for something useful in a low maintenance way and think this is a great way to do it.
We are still planning to grow some food crops in our allotment as they are great to supply the kitchen with and it will be an ongoing project to make sure we can continue to do so. Last year we grew carrots and potatoes as the kitchen were able to make use of them and so we will do the same again this year. We also grow raspberries, gooseberries, rhubarb and we added an apple tree and a plum tree last year. We have a new greenhouse on the allotment which will be used to grow cucumbers and tomatoes.
And finally, we are hoping to plant our Sunflowers again this year which were such a hit with staff, patients and our volunteers. They grew to be so tall and were definitely a talking point across the hospice!
We have some amazing volunteers who give up their time to help keep our gardens looking beautiful, what difference do they make?
The volunteers make a massive difference to the hospice. Without them, I would only be able to maintain the garden and not start anything new! Our volunteers contribute not only their time but also their ideas and experience to the garden which you can see as you walk around.
Every volunteer in the garden has a wealth of experience and they all have different tastes too which is great as it means we have created a garden which has something for everyone!
One of the projects the volunteers have been working on recently is putting some planters filled with strawberry plants outside the patients’ rooms so they can pick their own strawberries to eat while they are here which I’m sure will put smiles on all the patients faces.
How do our gardens support patients?
I think our gardens are very therapeutic for our patients. Patients will often spend time in our gardens when the weather is mild, either sitting outside their rooms or going for a walk. It’s a calm environment where they can have some peace, reflect or spend time with their family and friends.
You can hear the birds, see the bees buzzing around and can admire the flowers. When we chat to patients they tell us how much they enjoy being in the garden and they enjoy sharing what they have seen.
Our garden is such a lovely space, and it has such a positive impact on our patients’ mental health. It feels wonderful to be able to provide this peaceful area to patients when they need it most.
Why would you encourage people to get out into their gardens during National Gardening Week?
It’s well known that spending time in your garden is beneficial for your mental health, as well as your physical health. Focusing on a task and seeing the results can be incredibly rewarding. It’s a brilliant thing to do as just a small garden can have an impact on the wider world. You can do it all-year-round, even if that involves a bit of armchair gardening in the winter.
Greenspaces, particularly people’s gardens, are more important than ever right now. We all have busy lives so it can be hard to find time to get out in the garden but it’s such a great way to relax and contribute positively to the environment at the same time. Whether you start with a small planter or create your own vegetable patch, it all makes a difference.
So, this National Gardening Week I would encourage you all to get out into your gardens! Get planning for the year ahead and create your own coronation container to celebrate His Majesty King Charles III. Alternatively, visit one of our Glorious Gardens and help St Margaret’s to raise funds so they can continue to provide vital care and support to people across Somerset.