NHS Hospital Memorial Garden
NHS Foundation Trust is embedded in the heart of the local community, serving over a quarter of a million people since the 1970s. Renowned for their kind hearted spirit and friendly culture, they strive to continually improve the environment surrounding the hospital, as well as developing the service they provide.
NHS Hospital Landscaping
Last year they cared for over 61,000 patients in the hospital, saw 268,000 in clinic appointments and treated 78,000 in the emergency department. Offering moral support to this many patients and their visitors, is, at times, a challenge. The hospital noticed the opportunity to transform their current ‘memorial area’ from a couple of benches around a tree into a bright and peaceful garden for visitors and patients.
Hospital Memorial Garden Design
To produce a space that the whole community would be able to appreciate, the Hospital recognised the importance of the initial design. The goal was to create a garden that was a beautiful place of serenity whilst also ensuring it was suitable for everyone. This meant creating ease of access and egress for wheelchair users whilst safeguarding against trip hazards for those with impaired vision.
Hard Landscaping and Soft Landscaping
Initially we joined the team at the Hospital for a thorough survey of the site which allowed us to align our plan with their requirements. After the survey we worked alongside our trusted nursery, Johnson’s of Whixley, to select a stock of plants that would be sympathetic with the area and create a ‘traditional English garden’ feel. We were thoughtful with the spec we chose to ensure that the garden was blooming year-round and was suitable to the hospital environment. Additionally, the hospital requested we embraced their life cycle requirements that required ‘everything to be a very high-quality standard which is guaranteed for 25 years’.
Thanks to the well-thought out and detailed design we experienced minimal obstacles during the landscaping of the garden. The finished area was fully re-landscaped to spec, complete with a new backdrop, a path to the formal seating area which was lined with considerate flowers and a cared for remembrance tree that visitors could hang wishing memorials on. In addition to the soft landscaping revamp we also carried out improvements to the hard landscaping with new fencing, stonework, walls and foundations.
What we did
- Landscape Design
- Planting
- Paving
- Re-Turfing
- Installation of seating area
- Grounds maintenance
- Soft landscaping
- Hard landscaping
Barnsley Hospital now have a memorial garden to be proud of and due to the increased popularity, the hospital holds events throughout the year. These occasions allow visitors to bring gifts to leave around the tree or plant new bulbs in memory of loved ones. The project was 3 weeks from design to completion and boasted a specialist planting scheme, full re-turf that was mulched to finish, all bulbs planted and an area that will benefit the whole community. Developing their place in the community didn’t stop at the entrance of the garden either. Barnsley Hospital recognize the importance of celebrating their volunteers whilst encouraging others to ‘get involved’ in any way possible. And so, during national volunteer week, they invited the community to volunteer and assist the SPA Landscaping team in planting new bedding plants around the hospital. An activity on the small end of the scale, with results on the large end. Once again, Barnsley Hospital were able to develop the environment around the whole of the hospital whilst engaging with the local community to cement their place at the heart of it. A couple of months after the planting exercise, we re-visited the site to see how well the plants had flowered. The results were significant with locals commenting on how impressive a job so small was able to generate such ‘a glow’ at the entrances to the hospital.