Thrive’s new garden provides a green sanctuary to vulnerable Londoners

The opening of a new Sanctuary Garden supporting vulnerable people in London took place yesterday at Thrive, the gardening for health charity. The garden located at Thrive’s London centre in its Main Garden in Battersea Park provides a safe accessible space for people living with a range of health conditions or disabilities, especially those with dementia and their carers. Visitors to the garden and those attending Thrive programmes can benefit from gentle gardening activity, conversation, quiet reflection and enjoyment of wildlife and the changing seasons. Sensory beds of fragrant blooms, attractive foliage, herbs and vegetables stimulate the senses supporting mood enhancement and improved cognitive functioning and alertness, while aiding memories and feelings of pleasure. Multi-level raised planting areas encourage movement, co-ordination and dexterity, and sheltered seating areas offer a place for table-top activity, increased socialisation and respite. The garden’s level surface provides ease of access with wide pathways and no dead ends, allowing people with balance and mobility needs and wheelchair users to move about with confidence. Raised borders and a lattice fence give a sense of seclusion and safety without feeling restricted, retaining an open view of the garden. The new Sanctuary Garden will support Thrive London’s Garden Thyme programme. Here, trained practitioners help people living with dementia or memory loss to engage in gentle gardening activities and nature-based crafts to enhance their wellbeing and quality of life. Each session is designed to stimulate the senses, evoke memories and maintain or improve physical abilities through connection with nature and plants while providing social interaction with others. At the opening Thrive CEO Ben Thomas warmly welcomed guests saying: “At Thrive we support people to live well through gardening. The Sanctuary Garden is enabling us to support more people to improve their health and wellbeing, through spending time in nature, undertaking meaningful gardening activities and joining a positive community.” Sensory stimulation is invaluable for people with early onset dementia. Engagement with nature and gardening drives behaviours that reduce the risks of dementia, delaying the onset, slowing the decline and reducing social isolation. Gardening activity in older age has also been associated with cognitive benefits over the course of life, with those who spend time gardening shown to have better cognitive function in later life than those who do not. The creation of the Sanctuary Garden was generously funded by the Wolfson Foundation, The National Garden Scheme and the Friends of Battersea Park. Thanks to Robert Dyas and Forest Garden for their kind donation of features for the garden. Thrive is immensely grateful to its volunteers and supporters who enable the charity to deliver therapeutic gardening to even more people. To learn more about visiting the Sanctuary Garden and attending a programme at Thrive’s London centre visit thrive.org.uk/london

The opening of a new Sanctuary Garden supporting vulnerable people in London took place at Thrive, the gardening for health charity, on 11 June.

The garden, part funded by the National Garden Scheme, located at Thrive’s London centre in its Main Garden in Battersea Park provides a safe accessible space for people living with a range of health conditions or disabilities, especially those with dementia and their carers.

Visitors to the garden and those attending Thrive programmes can benefit from gentle gardening activity, conversation, quiet reflection and enjoyment of wildlife and the changing seasons.

Sensory beds of fragrant blooms, attractive foliage, herbs and vegetables stimulate the senses supporting mood enhancement and improved cognitive functioning and alertness, while aiding memories and feelings of pleasure. Multi-level raised planting areas encourage movement, co-ordination and dexterity, and sheltered seating areas offer a place for table-top activity, increased socialisation and respite. The garden’s level surface provides ease of access with wide pathways and no dead ends, allowing people with balance and mobility needs and wheelchair users to move about with confidence. Raised borders and a lattice fence give a sense of seclusion and safety without feeling restricted, retaining an open view of the garden.

The new Sanctuary Garden will support Thrive London’s Garden Thyme programme. Here, trained practitioners help people living with dementia or memory loss to engage in gentle gardening activities and nature-based crafts to enhance their wellbeing and quality of life. Each session is designed to stimulate the senses, evoke memories and maintain or improve physical abilities through connection with nature and plants while providing social interaction with others.

At the opening Thrive CEO Ben Thomas warmly welcomed guests saying: “At Thrive we support people to live well through gardening. The Sanctuary Garden is enabling us to support more people to improve their health and wellbeing, through spending time in nature, undertaking meaningful gardening activities and joining a positive community.”

All values supported by the National Garden Scheme through its Gardens and Health programme.

Sensory stimulation is invaluable for people with early onset dementia. Engagement with nature and gardening drives behaviours that reduce the risks of dementia, delaying the onset, slowing the decline and reducing social isolation. Gardening activity in older age has also been associated with cognitive benefits over the course of life, with those who spend time gardening shown to have better cognitive function in later life than those who do not.

The creation of the Sanctuary Garden was generously funded by the Wolfson Foundation, the National Garden Scheme and the Friends of Battersea Park. Thanks to Robert Dyas and Forest Garden for their kind donation of features for the garden. Thrive is immensely grateful to its volunteers and supporters who enable the charity to deliver therapeutic gardening to even more people.

To learn more about visiting the Sanctuary Garden and attending a programme at Thrive’s London centre visit thrive.org.uk/london for more about the National Garden Schemes support click here