8 life-changing UK gardens inspired by one extraordinary schoolboy
Dr Olivia Chapple OBE tells Country Living how her son’s dream led to the founding of Horatio’s Garden, a charity dedicated to delivering the restorative power of nature to those who need it most...
We’re in a colourful Wiltshire garden created by one of Britain’s top landscape designers. But wind back 14 years and it was a scrubby piece of land destined for a hospital car park. Your son Horatio was to change all that. Tell us about Horatio’s dream…
Olivia Chapple: Horatio was my eldest son and, as a teenager, he started volunteering here at the spinal injury centre in Salisbury. He wanted to be a doctor but also loved the outdoors and he hated the idea of patients being stuck inside for months. So he began to dream about creating a garden for them. His young inquisitive mind could do that because he wasn’t aware of all the reasons why it might be difficult…
Did you, as a doctor, warn him about the notoriously bureaucratic NHS?
When Horatio first came to David [Olivia’s husband, a spinal surgeon] and me, we talked about red tape and barriers. But we thought he was on to something. We encouraged him to do some research and he compiled a questionnaire. Patients told him they would love a garden but – and this was interesting – not as a place of rehab, just as a beautiful space that was a total contrast to the wards. So we started fundraising.
Horatio was tragically killed at just 17. How did his dream become a reality?
Horatio went on a trip to Svalbard and his camp was attacked by a polar bear. He tried to defend his friends and he lost his life. In the aftermath of that awfulness, people discovered that Horatio had been fundraising for a garden. Friends started giving money and then donations came in from people we didn’t even know – those who were touched by the horror of losing someone on the cusp of adulthood and brimming with ideas to make a difference. Suddenly we had an extraordinary fund that we could use to do something on his behalf – and that’s how the first garden, here in Salisbury, came about.
You quit your job as a GP to fundraise full time. But with no gardening contacts, how did you manage to snag one of Britain’s top landscape designers?
We realised this was an opportunity to do something different. We’ve all seen hospital gardens designed to be green year-round and low maintenance. We thought we could dial it up, create something full of colour and interest all year. So I googled, and then cold-called, Cleve West…
…who’d just won Best in Show at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. A bold move!
It was, but he didn’t hesitate. It turned out that his best friend Alan had been a patient here. So he instantly understood the needs of someone accessing a garden from a wheelchair. Back then, we just had a piece of rough grass adjacent to the centre. Cleve agreed to turn it into an accessible perennial garden. It opened in 2012, a year after Horatio died.
Today, there are eight Horatio’s Gardens. Was it always the plan to grow a network?
We never intended to build more than one garden. But, as word got out, we were approached by other spinal injury centres. Now, we have gardens at seven centres and the latest one – which inspired our own Best in Show garden at Chelsea in 2023 – is due to open in Sheffield this summer. We aim to have a garden for all 11 centres by 2030.
And each garden has been created by an A-list designer. Why?
The Salisbury garden set a template, but we still wanted each one to be different. Since Cleve, we’ve worked with – among others – James Alexander-Sinclair in Glasgow, Joe Swift at Stoke Mandeville, Bunny Guinness in Oswestry and Tom Stuart-Smith in London. By choosing top-notch designers, we’ve proved that hospital gardens can be inspiring showcases for the best of contemporary planting design.
About 4,400 people have life-changing spinal injuries every year in the UK. How can a garden help them cope?
A patient with spinal injury can be in hospital for an average of five months, entirely dependent on others. They have to be able to see a way forward and that’s hard on a ward, with artificial light, sounds, smells and very little privacy. A garden offers a refuge from that, somewhere to recover a sense of self. We do an audit every year with Oxford University. The evidence speaks for itself: more than 90 per cent say the gardens improve their mental health and help them engage better in their rehabilitation programme. Patients are more motivated to make the huge commitment that it takes to recover.
What do visitors make of the gardens?
It’s important that patients have their loved ones around them but visiting an alien hospital environment can be challenging, especially for young people. If you can have a cup of tea with your mates in the garden, it’s much less awkward for everyone – and makes visitors more inclined to come back.
What turns an ordinary garden into a healing sanctuary?
Sometimes, the garden’s the first place patients get some time alone, so there shouldn’t be any challenges to navigate. For accessibility, our paths are wide and smooth, and any doors are automated. We try to have the soothing sound of running water in all our gardens and lots of scented plants at wheelchair height – the sarcococca is heavenly at this time of year. We also find that colour is incredibly important. There’s plenty of scientific evidence that it gives us all that serotonin fix. That’s why we wanted perennial gardens, so they’d be full of colour and life all year round. We’ve even got a resident hedgehog here!
But perennial gardens need a lot of upkeep?
Yes, our gardens are high maintenance! Each one has a head gardener and a team of volunteers. It helps to give patients the feeling that the garden is treasured, that people beyond the hospital really care about them. Chatting with a garden volunteer while they’re, say, pruning can be hugely helpful, too. Giving patients the opportunity to talk is an important part of what we do.
We hear you have art and crafts workshops, too. Is that part of the rehab?
We have creative sessions in our garden rooms – anything from watercolour painting to weaving. We even had a songwriting workshop with Robert Macfarlane. We’ve done impact studies on these activities and 96 per cent of patients report significant pain distraction, even after the activity has finished. Results have been so staggering that the NHS now funds some of our art activities.
As a medic yourself, do you think access to green spaces should be on prescription for all of us?
As a doctor, and from seeing patients who use Horatio’s Gardens, I know that nature is a brilliant tonic for everyone. Our physiological responses to plants give us that burst of cortisol and dopamine that naturally make us feel better. I also know that personally, when times have been tough, the best way to find calm is to reach for something bigger than yourself. And nature gives you that. Horatio innately understood the power of gardens to bring happiness. And he has infused me with that. I feel connected to him when I’m here, but also to the many patients who’ve told me that this garden is the thing that has kept them going.
What do you think Horatio would have made of his legacy?
I know he’d have been delighted to have inspired something that makes a difference to thousands of people with spinal injuries every single day. His vision threw us, his family, a lifeline, to do something on his behalf. Today, the charity has such an incredible momentum and the most fantastic supporters. We think everyone who goes through a spinal injury needs a Horatio’s Garden as part of their rehabilitation and we will not stop until that happens.
6 ways to help Horatio’s Garden grow
Of the 11 NHS spinal injury centres in the UK, eight now have a Horatio’s Garden. The charity aims to have gardens in all of them by 2030. Country Living would like to help them reach that target, so we’ve chosen them to be our charity partner for 2025. As part of our Access for All campaign, we’ll work with them to champion the rights of everyone to enjoy the restorative powers of green spaces. Here’s how to get involved…
Become a friend of Horatio's Garden
Our target is to welcome 500 Friends over the next 12 months. For a donation of £10 or more a month, you’ll receive a bespoke Emma Bridgewater mug.
Shop for products
All found at horatiosgarden.org.uk/shop, including more Emma Bridgewater homeware. All profits support the charity.
Join an expert-led tour
Book onto one at each of Horatio’s Gardens in the UK to discover more about gardening for physical and mental health. And stay tuned for details of our exclusive reader events with the charity later in the year.
Volunteer your services
Whether you want to tend a garden, bake a cake or help with therapeutic activities, Horatio’s Garden offers full support.
Fundraise
Host a fundraising event or set yourself a sporting challenge – and tell us about it at accessforall@countryliving.co.uk. Our target is to raise £100,000, which will fund the upkeep of one garden for a year.
Stay tuned...
...follow our inspirational stories championing the restorative power of nature. We kick off with our new Nature and Nurture feature on page 135. And look out for our competition to find your favourite Green & Happy Spaces: more details to come in our June issue.
More more information visit: https://www.horatiosgarden.org.uk/
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