Gardens ARE important!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to speak at a conference being held by the UK's leading Rehabilitation Cost Consultants Jacqueline Webb & Co. Put simply this company provides extensive costings and advice to personal injury lawyers, insurers and claimants/pursuers, in Britain, Ireland and overseas, to provide an expert analysis of the past, present and future needs of the injured person. My task was to explain the important part that gardens have to play in the rehabilitation package ie The View from the Window. In reasearching this subject I have come across evidence both factual and empirical proving that the environment that we look out on and function in is vital to our well being and to our recovery from injury and illness. In addition designing the house for those with an injury - be it neural or physical should take place alongside the design for the garden. The saving of money, when this is done is enormous. The benefits to client huge - both in looking out of the window onto a changing scene of flowers, light, seasons, and in the use the garden is put to. After all what is the point in having a house, apartment that has a garden that is inaccessible to a wheelchair user, and the adaption cost is prohibitive and has not even been allowed for? It is frightening how often this happens.

Therapeutic Gardens Update

It is interesting that I am so tired; I spent the day in London yesterday at a seminar. Admittedly it was pouring with rain and not an ideal day to be out and about. But the tiredness comes more from sitting in a room all day and not getting out and about in the countryside that I so take for granted. I know that I talk and believe in the importance of our environment and gardens, but I tend to forget just how much cities can drain our energy, particularly on grey, low light days such as we are experiencing now. It makes that view out of the window even more important.

I was attending a seminar the RHS were giving about exhibiting at the Hampton Court Flower Show in July where we hope to be showing the Combat Stress therapeutic garden. We have been asked to fine tune our design - so you will see some updated drawings on this page soon. We have also managed, with the assistance of the nimble fingers of the Combat Stress fundraising team, to create a Bmycharity.com page so that any donations given for this garden will attract Gift Aid (fingers crossed!). You can view the page - and make a donation (please please please) on http://www.bmycharity.com/v2/combatstressgarden. Please if you know any organisation or person who might be willing to support this fantastic concept do let them know about the page. You can email me with any questions/ideas you may have. It is all very gratefully received!

Welcome to our new blog

I have been inspired to launch this blog due to our increased work load in the field of brain and neural injury/disabilities. What started off as a 'one-off' garden design job for a client has become something of a mission. So much so that I find myself starting a new company called Independent Gardening Ltd (IG), with a new soon to be completed website. Between IG and its sister company Down to Earth I hope to be able to design and build a variety of different gardens (small and large). The aim of this blog is to encapsulate what we are doing, what we've learned and cover new projects. I also hope to be able to make a difference; to inform and promote discussion about the importance of our gardens and our immediate surroundings, and the views through our windows to our emotional, physical and mental health.

I am especially happy to be able to bring my experience and knowledge of garden creation and maintenance to this specialised and worthwhile field. The media has ensured public recognition of the complex range of problems faced by our injured soldiers, helped by charities such as Combat Stress and Help for Heroes. But perhaps less well-appreciated in this country is the enormous part gardens and gardening can play in the long rehabilitation journey. I look forward to sharing with you the challenges and triumphs of this work – with some photos if the rain ever stops pouring!