Creative Transformation
We are encouraging our residents and staff to identify and develop an area of their outdoor space that they wish to transform into something enjoyable for the people of the home to adore. It could be the entranceway, a vegetable patch, a seating, or a sensory area – it’s your choice.
We would encourage you to make your chosen area(s) as bright, colourful, and diverse as possible not just with the plants you chose but your furniture and accessories selection.
Here you can:
- Encourage residents to help upcycle furniture
- Make and paint crafts for the garden
- Identify plant selections for sensory enjoyment
- Involve residents in developing ceramic birdbaths and wildlife ornaments
Community Partnership
Our homes thrive when the people connected to them come together. We believe that our community partnership work should work both ways and we’ll always give back to our communities in many ways, through time, sponsorship, and support. This section of the gardening event aims to:
- Connect with local gardening groups to generate ideas and advice
- Residents to volunteer within a community allotment group
- Engage with local businesses
This element brings a number of social benefits for our homes and maintains vital connections that many of our residents hold within their communities. Our homes aim to be the hub of many communities and now, more than ever, are we delighted to welcome people back to share special moments and experiences that mean the world to our people.
Intergenerational workings
Intergenerational activities are social engagements and interactions that bring younger and older generations together for a common purpose. Such activities have positive benefits for each age group involved. It encourages communication skills, enhances self-esteem, promotes positive decision making, improves memory, provides purpose, and promotes happy feelings.
The pandemic has impacted the activities that young and old have been able to do together and we are excited to start to reintroduce such important relationships back to our home and our residents. For us, these relationships are important to build on the strengths that different generations have to offer, nurture understanding, build mutual respect, and challenge ageism.
By including intergenerational activities within our gardening event, we can offer both parties the opportunity to give as well as receive, and to feel a sense of ownership and achievement – with the main aim being to make people happy.
We propose that homes can:
- Reconnect with their local nursery/school to create gardening projects ie, swap painted plant pots, each grows a vegetable (potato/carrot) then swap at the end
- Ask school classes to come and help plant flowers, paint and build
- Engage with local brownie and scout groups to support them getting their ‘gardening’ badge
This is a two-way partnership and therefore, projects can be as creative and far-reaching as you wish.
