Healing Gardens
Cleve West
Our first meeting at Chamberlin Hall was for our celebrity speaker Cleve West, and his talk on Healing Gardens. Members and guests packed the hall, on a lovely sunny afternoon to hear him talk about Horatio’s Gardens and his designs for other medal winning gardens where he needed to create spaces that were both calming and healing. Water is an essential element to these gardens, with inspiration drawn from the Paradise Gardens of the Middle East.
The soft palette of colours used, with mass planting to make swathes of calming hues; sometimes restricted colour use, just green and whites; the textures of plants - all combine to give a sense of healing. Hard landscaping with vertically laid drystone walls mixed with painted walls juxtapose energies within a garden. It was interesting to note that in the garden which he designed for the Bupa Garden – An Alzheimer Garden, the furniture and seating were painted red, so that Alzheimer patients can recognise it more easily. To create a feeling of breathing space between plants, Cleve likes to use gravel. This also has the advantage of making a newly planted garden look more established.
In Horatio’s Garden, which is used by long term patients with spinal injuries, the garden was designed to produce flowers, cascading vegetables and fruits. These could be picked by patients when they were wheeled out in their beds, to the garden, so that they could enjoy the normal pleasures of picking and eating a summer harvest. The garden has been planted to attract birds and insects too, with a particular focus on fragrance.
Cleve has recently become a Vegan, with his concerns for the state of the planet uppermost in his mind. He gave us his thoughts on the subject, and how those of us who care for our garden plots, can think about the effect that we have on the whole planet, and that maybe we should all consider treating the world with the same love and attention that we give to our gardens. He is a man who gardens from the heart, and it was a pleasure to meet him.
Erica Bolam
A note from Cleve.
He was conscious that he was out of time, and may not have got his point across at the end, and sent this
'Thanks also for letting me speak about veganism at the end. Due to the fact that I overran my time-slot I rushed it a bit and didn’t summarise why I wanted to include it at the end of a talk about healing gardens.
The point was that gardeners are well-placed to make a difference in the world in terms of sustainability as we are generally more in tune with nature. But while we enjoy what the garden gives to us by way of sustenance, therapy and healing we are not as quick to give anything back. I believe veganism gives us that opportunity on so many levels. The planet itself is one enormous garden so the thought I wanted to leave everyone with was “ask not what the garden can do for you, but what you can do for the garden”
I hope it didn’t ruffle too many feathers and that maybe one or two seeds have been sown'.