Oxford therapy garden vies for an award
By Catherine Walker
A haven of tranquility is how the Oxford Times described a garden for people with mental health problems.
The Beehive Garden in Manzil Way in Oxford is seeking an award in this year’s Oxford in Bloom contest.
Restore, a charity which helps people with mental health problems, has been using the garden to help clients for the past 10 years. It is also open to the public.
‘It is a retreat from the busy Cowley Road for the public, but also somewhere our mental health service users can come to work’ said Charlotte Attlee, Beehive recovery co-ordinator.
She added ‘There is a great therapeutic benefit of working in a small team where they have to co-operate and communicate; making plans and deciding what to do.’
About fifty people wo
. “There is a great therapeutic benefit of working in a small team where they have to co-operate and communicate; making plans and deciding what to do.”
Some fifty people work on the garden every week. Ms Attlee said ‘Some people get very inspired and go off and really look after their own garden or even think about it as a possible way into employment’.
The workers really had something to focus on throughout the year knowing that the garden would be entered in the contest ‘When we are looking at an area of the garden, we are always thinking ‘it will be great to have it looking good for Oxford in Bloom’ and it provides a real impetus to raise standards’ added Ms Attlee.
‘It’s also very nice to win something, and a lot of the people who are not likely to win anything as an individual get a real boost to get a prize in a group. Everyone makes a contribution and it caries us through a lot of the year’.
There is a small café in the garden in which organically-grown herbs from the garden are used.
Charlotte Atlee said: “It is a great competition and it inspires people to garden to a high standard because they know they will be judged against others.”
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