At a glance:

Who would use this garden?
The garden is for use by parents and siblings staying at the hospice with their child receiving hospice care.
Where is the garden set?
The garden is located in South Yorkshire at the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice site, 20 minutes from Wentworth Woodhouse. It is a small, private garden within the wider child friendly hospice gardens.

This garden is a private space, designed for use by parents who are staying with their child at the hospice in the end of life suite, to which the garden is attached.

The visitors will see a garden of scrolling forms and spaces which caress or merge into each other, resembling hands softly held together. The design offers moments of tranquillity set amongst immersive planting to pause or reflect, a place in which to feel cocooned, and able to be alone with thoughts or find a glimmer of solace within nature.

The garden contains curving paths that aim to take the parents on a journey to secluded spaces, with curving timber benches where they can sit and reflect. One of these areas has a bespoke steel and timber canopy offering shelter. Boundary hedges weave organically through the space and the use of trees adds to the sense of envelopment in the space, blurring the boundaries.

The planting is predominantly green, with flowers a muted colour palette to create a calming effect. There will be several multi-stemmed trees to create the impression of a woodland edge and provide a sense of overhead canopy to envelope the garden user in the space. Feature plants include: Veronicastrum, Anemone ‘Elfin Swan’, Dryopteris wallichianum, Heuchera ‘Thomas’ and Daphne ×transatlantica ‘Eternal Fragrance’.

The garden will be relocated to Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice which is only a 20 minute drive from the Wentworth Woodhouse show ground. The garden was designed specifically for the hospice site prior to the decision to exhibit at the Wentworth Woodhouse Show and is being showcased to raise awareness of the work that both Greenfingers Charity and Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice do nationally and locally. It is intended that the garden will be rebuilt immediately after the show.