Greenfingers, the charity dedicated to creating magical gardens at children’s hospices around the UK, has started work on its 44th garden at Little Havens Hospice in Thundersley, Essex.

The charity is creating a fully accessible and interactive ‘Grow Your Own’ garden where seriously ill children and families who are cared for by Little Havens can enjoy growing and harvesting their own food, as well as using the new space for therapy, play and relaxation.

The Grow Your Own garden will transform a currently vacant patch of land into a lush and abundant fruit and vegetable garden where all children can be involved in planting, cultivating and harvesting crops. The garden has been designed and built by Chelmsford based Eden Horticulture, with Matthew Eden working alongside Greenfingers’ Garden Project Manager Emma Hanford.

The garden will feature many stimulating and interactive elements for the children and families to enjoy with the fruit and veg being grown in specially designed fully accessible raised beds.  Children will enter the garden via a beautiful pergola generously donated by Harrod Horticultural and can travel along Cedagravel pathways, alighting on an impressive stone circle, kindly donated by CED, which will serve as a meeting and entertaining area. 

At the centre of the stone circle will be a fun bespoke watering can water feature, which the children can actually use to help water the garden.Raised grassy viewing areas that include an iroko tree seat donated by the Garden Trellis Company under an existing oak tree will border the garden.

Another central feature of the new Grow Your Own garden will be the impressive circus style ‘Big Top’ where outdoor activities can take place, children and families can relax and the hospice’s Care Team can run vital sessions in the beautiful surroundings of 110 acres of Essex Wildlife Trust land.

Emma Hanford, Greenfingers’ Garden Project Manager, said of the garden ‘We are thrilled to have made a start on our 44th garden – this ‘Grow Your Own’ garden at Little Havens will be such an inspiring space for the children to learn and have fun growing fruit and vegetables with their families, the Care Team and the hospice’s volunteers – spending time together and passing down experience through the generations, out in the fresh air. We can’t wait for the children here to get out here!

Once again, the support we’ve received from the industry has been wonderful, we are grateful to everyone who has been involved so far, and would welcome any other interest in this exciting project.’

Greenfingers have already received amazing support from suppliers across the industry to help with the project at Little Havens.  In addition to the major donations from Harrod Horticultural, CED and Garden Trellis Company Greenfingers would like to thank the following for their support on the project so far: David Driver & Sons; Dale Hire; Q Lawns; Scotts; Alton Garden Centre; Perrywood Garden Centre; Gardening Express; VegTrug; Kilgraney Railway Sleepers; Underwoods and LOFA.

The Grow Your Own garden at Little Havens, which is expected to be completed by mid summer, will be the second to be built under the umbrella of the charity’s Rosy Cheeks’ appeal, which aims to raise the funds for at least ten more gardens at children’s hospices around the UK.

To get involved in the garden please contact Greenfingers on 01494 674749 and for latest project updates follow Greenfingers on twitter @Greenfingerscha