Bupa 2008

The Bupa Garden highlighted the importance of access to green space for residents of their care homes. Bupa’s recognition and endorsement that gardens are beneficial for mind, body and soul was well documented. They found that gardens not only help stimulate the brain with colour and scent, but also give people a contained world that has a past and present reality, very useful when the rest of a person’s life may be becoming confused.

I initially wanted the whole garden to be a celebration of foliage plants thinking that green was the most relaxing colour but Bupa were keen to extol the virtues of colour as a valuable stimulant-cum-memory-jogger for anyone suffering from dementia. We came to a compromise with full colour from sun-loving plants to the front of the garden and a mix of shade-loving plants to the rear. The disharmony (to my mind at least) was offset by multi-stemmed amelanchiers and climbing roses repeated throughout. Serendipity played a big part when it came to relocate the garden to a courtyard of Bupa care home where half of the garden was in full sun and the other half in full shade. We couldn’t have planned it any better. The only disappointment was that we were only allowed to use one tree for fear of shading sunlight from residents bedroom windows. The disappointment was compounded literally a minute after the tree was planted when a great tit flew in and sang their heart out.