Our hospice gardens at our Apley Castle and Bicton sites have been awarded an ‘Outstanding’ classification by Heart of England in its It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards 2016 for the third year running.
We were visited by Royal Horticultural Society assessors on August 1st, who explored our gardens and discussed how they had grown over the past year. The assessors asked about the future of our grounds and how we are working together with the community to be environmentally conscious.
The awards consider three main criteria when deciding the classification of a project; Community Participation, Environmental Responsibility and Gardening Achievement. Our hospice gardens triumphed, as the assessors recognised our volunteers for their incredible hard work and congratulated our gardeners for the stunning variety of plants, as well as recognising the special care taken by the hospice to consider the needs of patients and their families when designing the grounds.
Our Head Gardeners, Chris and Tony, said: “We’re thrilled the hospice has been awarded ‘Outstanding’ for the third year in a row for both of its gardens. We’d like to thank our volunteer gardeners for all of their hard work; it’s been an incredible journey bringing these gardens to life and we couldn’t have done it without their knowledge and generosity.
“We also have very exciting plans for the future. We have big plans for the gardens including planting new and more colourful flowers at Bicton, and at Apley we have plans to improve our current borders and replant the bedding at the front of the building. We’re always looking to keep improving and know the gardens will continue to blossom.”
Our gardeners are always looking for volunteers to help out so if you’re green fingered and would like to get involved please email us at volunteers@severnhospice.org.uk or give us call on 01743 236565 or 01952 221350.
