YORK CARE HOME GARDEN
‘GETTING OUT’
My final project at the London College of Garden Design develops the gardens of a care home near York; an old Jacobean manor house with 8.5 acres of parklands.
Recent Dementia research demostrates the important therapeutic value that gardening and being in nature has for sufferers. The exciting challenge here was how to encourage residents outdoors from the day room, and make the wonderful parklands accessible to them. The design is driven by what residents shared with me about missing their own gardens and trips out.
The design concept was to make a ‘homely’ inner garden and ‘trips out’ to themed areas in the wider parklands. The secure inner gardens are familiar in style and scale to gardens residents owned, with active and passive therapeutic gardens accessible on foot or wheelchair.
The wider grounds are made accessible by new developments in electric accessible buggies enabling family or staff to take residents on ‘trips out’ to the different character areas of the grounds. These include picnicing in an orchard, a lodge in the woodlands, relaxing by the lake, seating by the old Cedar in the wildflower meadow, feeding the animals, as well as four short walks off the buggy route.
Im very proud to say this project won an award at the prestigious Society of Garden Design Annual Awards in 2020 in the Student Commercial category. Find out more
View from the house main terrace looking out onto the Parklands walk, wildflower meadow with the lake in the distance
Eastern view with a new terrace, new feature perennial beds with an open walkway to the feature pagoda in the distance
Birds eye view of the full scheme showing the buggy route round the parklands and lake in the foreground
View along the securely enclosed main terrace with the covered social area for residents, with intimate seating areas, skittle court, with the rose garden as a destination
A view along the buggy route where there is picnic seating by the lake, next to the short woodland walking route around the lake
The full site master plan labelling the main features of the scheme
A plan showing the secure inner garden with its active and passive therapy areas
A sectional elevation showing the nature and staff garden to understand relative heights of the structures and planting