Work on hospital staff reflection garden under way

The reflection garden at Peterborough City Hospital will include wooden pods and meeting spaces

Work on a reflection and wellbeing garden at Peterborough City Hospital has got under way.

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust is funding the £40,000 project as part of its commitment towards improving staff's mental health.

The garden has been designed by Jennie Grainger, lead volunteer gardener at the trust's Peterborough Cancer Wellbeing Service, and it includes creative planting schemes, innovative seating and meeting spaces to remember trust colleagues who have died.

The work will bring the Peterborough garden in line with those completed at Stamford and Rutland Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon.

Some of those involved in the project with the plans for the garden

The first series of all-weather meeting pods have been installed and are ready to be used.

Other features of the reflection garden will include Italian cypress trees planted in large, recycled glass fibre containers, aged to look like metal, and five fruit trees.

A handmade memorial focal point – including a sculpture by local metal artist Jeni Cairns – will also feature.

It will allow staff to hang metal leaves, engraved with their colleagues’ names, in their memory.

Philip Fearn, the trust's charity project manager, said: "We had some feedback from staff about the existing memorial garden and took on board their thoughts about how this could be elevated to make it not only a reflective space to remember colleagues who have passed away but also a beautiful, tranquil and functional space."

Works is under way on the reflection garden