Staff
Daffodils are welcoming spring, our local garden centres are coping with new challenges, and your Meaford Hospital Volunteer Gardeners will soon be hard at work creating an exciting new “healing space” – albeit working from a social distance.
Tucked in behind the hospital overlooking the ravine, the healing garden will be a private space for patients, their families, and our frontline workers to de-stress, and ’heal’.
The project has its roots in a small garden planted several years ago to memorialize four beloved nurses who had all passed away that year. Two Gingko trees were later added by the families of two Meaford doctors to honour their memories.
Last year, a donation was made in memoriam with the request that it be used to create a more comprehensive healing space at the hospital. The crushed rock was laid, a bench and picnic table were provided and the volunteer gardeners were asked to weave the same magic they did last year in the hospital’s ‘Welcome Garden’ out front.
It is a natural fit for a bunch of ‘green thumbs’ who truly believe in the healing power of gardens and nature.
So, the planning is done, soon the trowels will be in the ground, and the work to enhance the grounds of Meaford General Hospital continues.
As always, many others have contributed to make this possible. The Community Foundation Grey Bruce generously supported the Memorial Healing garden, and the volunteer gardeners would also like to thank the following for their support of the gardens’ ‘rebirth’:
The Meaford Hospital Foundation
Meaford Council
The Apple Harvest Craft Show
The Community Foundation Grey Bruce
A big thank you to the following for their generous support of expertise, time and materials:
Good Family Farm, provided 25 pounds of organic fertilizer
Nathan Bellamy, Axess Arborist and Tree Services – pruned cherry and maple trees and drilled a large dead root
Chris Sweatman, Ecocultures – transported and laid pathway stones
Rod Dube and Jordyn Bishop, Georgian Bay Landscaping, removed grass and nasty weeds in the expanded entrance garden
Annan-Way Nursery and Ormsby Garden Centre provided generous discounts on plant, tree and shrub purchases.
“And, thank you to everyone who support our plant sales. over the years. All the proceeds from the sale go to the hospital gardens,” said the volunteers.
