A Penarth hospice has unveiled a sensory garden area to mark National Gardening Week.
The Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale on Bridgeman Road, received funding from the Cardiff and Vale Health Charity Make it Better fund – allowing the team to create the sensory area in the side courtyard.
The charity provides expert round-the-clock care and support to thousands of people living with a terminal illness, and their loved ones, in its Cardiff and the Vale Hospice in Penarth and in their own homes across Wales.
A keen gardener provided the team at the hospice with a planting plan for each planter, and suggestions for other elements of the garden.
Marie Curie Project Manager Julie Skelton, who led the creation of the garden, said: “There are lots of new plants, all chosen for the scent, feel, striking colours, the rustling sound they make, or their taste. There is a plant that smells like coco cola and in time there should be plenty of herbs to harvest.
“With donated money we bought ‘Heart and Hands’ planters symbolic of the hospice and the people who visit. We hope with good sunshine the garden will flourish across the summer and be filled with colour.”
“The fund has enabled us to establish a place of escape, tranquility and distraction into the hospice garden. The garden will become a focal point of the Hospice Horticulture group when it is re-established post Covid and we hope to see it develop and change with the seasons.”
Before the pandemic, the hospice had volunteers who joined the horticulture café, which they hope will be able to run again in future as restrictions ease – but in the meantime, staff will maintain the garden as best they can.
