Horatio's Garden, improving lives

Annabelle Padwick explains the work of a horticultural charity which, through gardening and related activities, aims to support those recovering from spinal injury

- Annabelle Padwick

Every few months I would like to highlight a different amazing horticultural therapy charity or organisation, which hopefully may be of interest to you or someone you know. I always think that incredible places, whether that’s gardens, hidden restaurants or charities, can go undiscovered unless we tell each other and share experiences.

This month’s spotlight is on Horatio’s Garden, a national charity which improves the lives of everyone affected by spinal injury through creating and nurturing beautiful gardens in the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. The team of garden designers builds and maintains thriving communities to support patients and their loved ones who are facing long stays in hospitals.

Once the gardens have been built, the charity’s head gardener and volunteer team care for the garden and support the activities organised by the charity, in collaboration with the spinal centers’ therapy team for patients, their families and friends. These include garden therapy, art therapy, artists in residence, book and poetry clubs, craft groups, tea and cakes, food events, and music concerts – all designed to improve well-being and in particular the psychological outcomes of patients and their families as they adjust to life-changing injuries.

FIVE GARDENS

Since 2012, Horatio’s Garden has created five gardens, four of which are at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre at Salisbury Hospital; Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit, Glasgow; the National Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville and the Midlands Centre for Spinal Injuries.