Hartsholme House care home, Ashby Avenue, Lincoln, has won the Trust in Bloom 2024 Award for Best Overall Gardens in Lincolnshire in OSJCT’s annual competition. This achievement reflects the hard work and dedication, by team members, volunteers and supporters in the community, which went into transforming the home’s gardens into vibrant and therapeutic spaces for residents and visitors.

Hartsholme House took part in the competition alongside 55 other OSJCT care homes. As the Lincolnshire winner the home will receive £250 vouchers to spend on gardening equipment, donated by competition sponsors SpaGas.

The care home has also been awarded category certificates for the Best Miniature Garden in Lincolnshire, and Runner up in the Best Hanging Baskets and Best Gardening Club categories. The home has also been awarded Highly Commended and Most Improved certificates.

The work to transform the gardens began in January, with residents choosing the colours and types of flowers they wanted to see. A dedicated team, led by carers Maria Irvine, Debbie Britten and Annie Durrant, started a gardening group with residents and other supporters. They spent many hours transforming the gardens together.

Special features in Hartsholme House’s competition entry included:

• A miniature fairy garden, created in an upcycled boat.
• Raised planters, crafted using recycled wire drums by Maria.
• A freshly painted summer house, which now offers a pretty and peaceful location for residents and their family members to sit.
• Herb and vegetable garden, which provides fresh produce for the home's kitchen.
• A painted white cross; emblematic of the OSJCT's history and charitable ethos.
• Personalised window boxes created for each resident, designed by Maria with handmade signs by Debbie and flowers chosen by residents, assisted by Annie.

The garden is a haven for wildlife and attracts bees, hedgehogs, foxes, and the occasional muntjac deer from the neighbouring Hartsholme Country Park.

Cheryl Gilderdale, Home Manager at Hartsholme House, which boasts an Outstanding CQC rating, expressed immense pride in the team's achievements: "I am so proud of the team and everyone who has helped to transform our gardens. It really is a wonderful space for residents, their families, and members of the community to visit. Everyone has worked so hard and brought in many creative ideas. Some of our residents with dementia have limited communication skills, but their faces light up when they visit the garden or see the flowers and wildlife from their rooms."

Debbie said: "The garden is the result of a massive effort by all involved over the last few months. We are very grateful for all the kind donations, from B&Q, Pennels, and Costa Coffee. It is also very special that our garden contains so many plants donated by families of our residents. This garden has been a community effort with special meaning for our residents."

Looking ahead, Hartsholme House plans to install wildlife cameras to capture and share footage of the garden's animal visitors with residents via TVs and iPads, further enhancing their connection to nature.

To watch interviews with employees and volunteers and view the gardens at Hartsholme House click on the link: https://youtu.be/e8eyX7_SbZ8