Show garden installed at children's hospice

A children's hospice in South Yorkshire is the recipient of a garden presented at the RHS Flower Show at Wentworth House this July

A flower garden that featured in the Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show at Wentworth Woodhouse earlier this summer has been relocated to a children's hospice.

The project was funded by Greenfingers charity, which provides therapeutic outdoor spaces for children with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses.

The Together Garden is now a permanent fixture at Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice at Dinnington, Rotherham.

Garden designer Phil Hirst, 60, from Sheffield, said he wanted to create something that would help those at the hospice "know that they are cared for".

The garden features plants which will grow all year round, along with benches and canopies that offer shelter.

Mr Hirst said he knew the people using this garden would be going through a very difficult time.

"It's almost unimaginable," he said.

For him it became "more than a job" and called the project a "labour of love".

"You want to do right by the people that this is going to benefit, so you really put your heart and soul into it."

Mr Hirst was previously an accountant for the University of Sheffield, before becoming a garden designer 17 years ago.

The designers of the garden said they wanted to prioritise making it a "calm and peaceful" environment

Another garden designer who worked on the project, Jo Charlton, 57, from Barnsley, said she intended it to be a "quiet space for parents or carers to take a moment".

She emphasised that they wanted to make sure there would be something in the garden during each season, as the hospice suite is used throughout the year.

"We wanted to feel that it's not completely cut off from the rest of the site, but there's a privacy there," she said.

"It's been incredibly special."

Heidi Hawkins, from the hospice, said the space had previously been not so welcoming

Bluebell Wood provides care and support for children with terminal conditions, and for their close ones, across South Yorkshire.

Chief executive Heidi Hawkins said the garden is positioned next to one of their bereavement rooms, a space for families to spend time with a recently deceased child.

"At the very, very worst of times, this is a space that is just for families," Ms Hawkins said.

"We could not have afforded to do this. Greenfingers made this all possible.

It's an absolute thrill, we're so humbled by the whole project, and so grateful."

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