A Hospice Memory Garden Planting Design needs to meet a range of criteria.
It should be a place of remembrance for those who have lost a loved one, somewhere to sit and reflect on the happy things as well as the sad. But it should also offer the opportunity for residents, patients and staff to sit; to relax and recharge.
Our previous blog Hospice Memory Garden – Design and Preparation told part of the story. This one will tell you some more…and show you many photos, which is always interesting!
Hospice Memory Garden – the Design Concept
The term ‘hospice memory garden’ may cover a number of types of gardens and borders where flowers, shrubs, trees and even statues are placed so that the bereaved can come and remember their loved ones.
St Christopher’s Hospice offers care and support for the residents of the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark. They have a site in both Orpington and Sydenham.
Back in October 2015, we met with Christine and Philippa from St Christopher’s Hospice at the Sydenham hospice grounds. Marie, as Plews Garden Design, was asked to design and create a Memory Garden in the grounds at Sydenham. Designed as a year round garden, to be enjoyed by the residents, staff and carers, we decided that the area next to the Pavilion would be the best place.
It was agreed that the Memory Garden would have the names of loved ones planted along with the flowers and shrubs. The date for completion was that the garden should be ready for an ‘official opening’ at the St Christopher’s Mad Hatters Fair on June 25th –
Initial thoughts and ideas followed on from the site survey, carried out by both Marie, and Nathan, from Plews Garden Landscaping. We knew the whole border would need to be cleared of the old, tired shrubs; the soil dug over and improved.
The hospice memory garden design included a change of shape and extension to the existing border so that scented flowers could be planted near the doors of the pavilion.
Scent and a changing outlook over the year were important design elements. A predominantly white orientated planting scheme was chosen with both silver foliage and white flowers. This soft colour will show up well for evening visitors, and provides a contrast to the lush green lawn.
The edges, low hedging plants, are all evergreen, Santolina, Lavender, Thyme and Dianthus, all with scented foliage or flowers.
Within this hedge, purple and red offer the contrast to silver and white. This is from both foliage and flowers, with purple Heuchera, red roses and Cornus, dogwood, with its bright red winter stems.
The aromatic foliage will be a year round pleasure; and there will be scent from flowers through most of the year too. For example, the evergreen foliage of Sarcococca hides small, sweetly scented flowers; not for nothing is this shrub known as sweet box or winter box.
Hospice Memory Garden – Planting the Design
Another, smaller gathering of the Plews Team and volunteers got together for planting the design.
Thanks must go to Terry of Crocus Bookkeeping for looking after the majority of the plants in between donation or purchase and their planting at St Christopher’s. They all survived – no mean feat as there were quite a few!
Setting out the plants to the new planting design was followed by a break to eat yet more scrummy cakes (chocolate this time, thanks again, Emma!)
The show piece plant, our Corylus avellana contorta ‘Red Majestic’, a particularly decorative cultivar of the corkscrew hazel, was planted up into the large terracotta pot. This hazel will provide a changing view from the seating area, with catkins in early spring followed by fresh young red bronze leaves, edible nuts in the autumn when mature and a framework of curling stems over winter.
Ground cover (to reduce weeding requirements) includes purple Heuchera and furry leaved Stachys byzantina, sometimes known as ‘lambs’ ears’. And of course there are some roses, including ‘blessings’ and ‘in loving memory’.
Planting the design took longer than originally expected, as I had to re-design the planting scheme, so some of the Plews Team went back to finish on the following day.
Plews is currently maintaining the memory garden, with some help from our volunteers, as newly planted garden borders need extra care. Even when I have designed an easy maintenance garden the early days after planting do require clients to water regularly, deadhead and make sure foxes haven’t dug up the plants. They are often tempted by newly turned earth, as are your own or neighbours’ cats and dogs.
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