HORATIO'S GARDEN
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is in full bloomthis week, the starting pistol to the summer season has gone off and we have our elbows deep in compost, channelling our inner Don, Titchmarsh or Thrower. The healing power of the garden and nature is pretty spectacular and we were lucky enough to visit Horatio’s Garden to prove this, an unbelievable charity born out of tragedy, which is now helping so many…..
Horatio’s Garden is named after Horatio Chapple, a schoolboy who wanted to be a doctor. In 2010, Horatio volunteered at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury, and realised there was a lack of outdoor space for patients with spinal injuries and their loved ones. Patients who would spend 6 months to a year in a bed without any way of getting outside and reaping the benefits of being in the garden. With encouragement from his parents the idea was born and the seed sewn. Tragically, Horatio’s life was cut short in 2011 at just 17, when his camp was attacked by a polar bear whilst on an expedition to Svalbard. There followed an outpouring of love and goodwill, with donations flooding in for his garden to be created.
The first garden was designed by seven-time RHS Chelsea gold medal winner, Cleve West. An amazing name to have on the team sheet and following its success, a nationwide charity was formed with the mission to create gardens in all the UK NHS spinal injury centers across the UK, each designed by a different leading landscape designer.
We met up with Magnus Chapple and Freddie Scarratt, Horatio’s younger brother and good friend from school at the London & South East garden at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. To say when we arrived it was like entering a green haven of tranquility and calm would be an understatement. Leaving the rush hour chaos just a stone’s throw away into this oasis of green was a real joy. Entering a hospital environment is never a cheery experience, but wondering through the winding paths to find the almost secret garden was a real pleasure. The noise from the water features and accompanying bird song drowning out London life.
Horatio’s Garden is a critical part of people’s rehabilitation, with evidence that being in the garden improves mental and physical health and a distraction from pain. The gardens are designed so that they are all accessible by wheel chair and bed. The pods in each corner of the garden give patients and their families places to sit and have time together. They run gardening sessions to grow and cultivate plants, workshops to discover new skills and a programme of live music and events.
We know it’s a cliché but you really don’t feel like you’re anywhere near a hospital, the gardens are all designed by world class garden designers, there is some friendly infighting with this crowd to see who will get the next one, trowels at dawn perhaps? Horatio’s Garden takes this seriously, they won the coveted Best in Show at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2023. This garden designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg has now been moved to the NHS spinal treatment centre in Sheffield and was the latest one to open.
Magnus and Freddie are part of the Young Committee at Horatio’s Garden, putting on fundraising events and spreading the love for the charity, keeping Horatio’s work going. The guys are arranging their next event at the minute, the Party at the Power Station is on the 19th June at the legendary Battersea Power Station (we’ll see you there) GET TICKETS HERE The gardens work hard all year round and are carefully cared for by a head gardener and garden coordinator. It also takes an army of volunteers to support by baking cakes, makeingtea, chatting to patients, weeding (dreaded job) and generally keep them looking pretty spectacular.
This gardening game is serious stuff, we all love to potter and reap the rewards, even if the tomatoes don’t ripen and your dahlias wilt. There is one common denominator on how being in the garden makes you feel, we know we left Horatio’s Garden with a smile on our face and a lot of love in our heart and a list as long as our arm on what to do in the garden next (a water feature was mentioned!).
