Our Sustainable Gardening Practices

Case study: Warwick hospital’s Thomas Ward

Forest of Hearts were chosen to create a garden for staff and patients at Thomas Ward to enjoy because we believe in the link between wellbeing and helping the environment to thrive. We had already delivered gardens for staff wellbeing at two nearby hospitals and seen the positive correlation of wellbeing and the environment play out.

There are many steps that can be taken to ensure that a garden is sustainable.

We tried to incorporate as many as possible into the process of creating the garden outside Thomas Ward at Warwick Hospital.

 We’ve broken these steps down into three broader categories: planning, doing and maintaining.

Planning

In planning the creation of the garden, as many meetings as possible were held over Zoom to spare emissions from travel, and all written communication, risk assessments and design work via email.

Inspecting the site in person was necessary in order assess the environment in which we were working and to make a comprehensive risk assessment. However, we minimised travel emissions by travelling via an electric van and by bike or foot.

We also inspected the plant life already on site. Part of our ethos is not to destroy or damage nature, but rather add to it if it will be positive for sustainability. This meant not digging up any of the grass and not putting at risk the three trees that existed on site prior to the garden being created. If any weeding, watering or pruning can be done to help pre-existing features to thrive, we always encourage it.

Doing

As we were not allowed to plant directly into the ground (because the hospital could not permit a 100% permanent  garden, but required a garden that could potentially be moved a few years down the line), all plants and trees were put in beds or pots.

The beds and pots were created with almost solely recycled materials, as was the garden the garden furniture. The beds were pieced together from recycled pallet wood all the pots from recycled plastic sourced from a trustworthy supplier. The beds were also lined with recycled cardboard as a natural weed suppressant.

Almost all the furniture installed in the garden is benches and chairs that we renovated ourselves. They had previously fallen into a state of disrepair in other nearby hospitals and would have been thrown out if they had not been repurposed. Again it is important that the furniture we renovated came from nearby sources to reduce emissions from travel, so we looked on site and as close to the site as possible for furniture.

We also painted two former cable spools and turned them on their side to use them as coffee tables, which saved getting new furniture in. And we bought some second-hand plastic seating to prevent it going to landfill.

Any lawn-mowing or strimming of the area that needed to take place before planting was done with battery-powered electric strimmers, and an electric mower. We use a solar-charged battery to charge the strimmer batteries with.

On the sustainable planting side of things, we make sure low-maintenance and long-term plants: a mixture of perennials, evergreens and succulents (which require minimal watering). This ensures the longevity of the garden. All plants are planted in peat-free compost and we also lay down bark to prevent the growth of unwanted weeds.

Furthermore, we grew some of the plants ourselves, from cuttings, rather than buying them new from a shop, which meant we could guarantee a more natural growth process. This also meant we used recycled pots rather than new ones.

To sustain as much insect life as possible, the hexagonal beds we created are laid out as ‘fruit tree guilds’, a planting formation that attracts bees, butterflies and other pollinators, and thereby boosts biodiversity.

The creation of the garden itself is also a process in which wellbeing and sustainability are heavily linked. We have extensively observed the health benefits of group gardening through our long-running Green Therapy group at Stratford hospital. To create Thomas Ward, we had a group of 9 volunteers from Coca Cola providing people power. By getting them out onto this project which results in giving something back to the community and nature, they also achieved their Corporate Social Responsibility aims.

Maintaining

In order to maintain this garden, which is key to its sustainability, there a few things to note.

Allowing the garden to thrive by regular watering, weeding, pruning, dead-heading and planting, are simple tasks that anyone can undertake. For sustainability purposes, it makes sense that people living or working within a close proximity to the garden are the ones that tend to it. Creating a maintenance guide and passing the torch on to local volunteers to look after the garden is therefore a part of our sustainable process.

Another small practical step to make for looking after the garden is getting a tap installed nearby to make regular watering easier. This also opens up the possibility of watering the garden with watering cans, as opposed to a hose, which is less wasteful.

Our sustainability checklist

• Peat free compost + make our own compost

• Reduce water consumption + save rainwater

• Propagate our own plants from seeds and cuttings

• Use plants which are drought tolerant and plant trees

• Use perennials and evergreens to reduce waste

• Source local pants to avoid air miles

• Grow herbs, vegetables and fruit

• Deliver harvest share to reduce food waste

• Recycle all pots, cardboard, etc…

• Avoid single use items, use reusable coffee cups, etc…

• Use old pallets for raised beds + recycled plastic tubs + recycled benches

• Drive an electric vehicle