National Garden Challenge Winners – Green Fingered Success
We are extremely proud to announce that individuals we support and colleagues at Haydock House, Kettering have won the “Celebrating Success” category of the Growing Support and National Care Home Open Day Gardening Challenge.
Growing Support partnered with Care Home Open Day to invite care homes to take part in their first ever Gardening Challenge in June this year. The aim was to turn care home gardens across the UK into lively hubs of activity.
Haydock House had been working on a gardening project and decided to enter the ‘Celebrating Success’ category, which aimed to celebrate the fantastic achievements of a home’s residents and understand how many of the people involved in the challenge had overcome a personal challenge to work in the garden.
Tracy Banning, a Support Worker, realised that the transformation of the garden might provide an additional way to engage with all the individuals living at Haydock on a project in which they could all be involved and contribute to in a variety of ways.
So the ‘Garden Project’ co-ordinated by Tracy began in partnership with Hayley, Chris, Tamara, Claire, Jackie and Aaron. A fence came down to open the area up, whilst the weeds and old bushes were cleared. Once this was done, they introduced a small wildlife pond in an old Belfast sink as Chris is keen on frogs and wildlife. They also transformed another area into a fairy/hobbit garden with a small door and window attached to the tree with the surrounding area landscaped.
Hayley, an individual we support at Haydock House, worked particularly hard during the challenge, supported to achieve this by her Support Worker Tracy.
There were lots of creative elements that came together in the completion of the garden. Pots were individually decorated with paints and mosaics and Support Worker James encouraged everyone including the support team to create a pot that reflected their own individual personality.
They installed hanging baskets, pallet planters, a herb garden, bird boxes and tables made from upcycled furniture. They also decorated the patio furniture with newly made cushions.
It has been a project that has brought the people we support and the team together, everyone working side by side.
To celebrate their success they planned and hosted an Open Day. They invited guests including our Managing Director who joined them on a warm summer afternoon to take a tour and officially open the garden.
More information about our entry can be found here