Award-winning Chelsea Show garden arrives at Winchester Hospice

AN AWARD-WINNING RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden is being recreated in its new home at Winchester Hospice.

Work has started on the construction of the Bible Society-sponsored Psalm 23 Garden at the hospice on the Royal Hampshire County Hospital site, in Romsey Road, Winchester.

The garden scooped a gold medal at the recent RHS Chelsea Flower Show, also winning Best Sanctuary Garden and Best Construction for its class.

Designed and created by multi award-winning designer Sarah Eberle, the garden brings the famous text of 'The Lord is my Shepherd' to life through green pastures and still waters.

The seven-week installation at Winchester Hospice started this week with a crane transporting gabbro rocks, originally from Scotland, on to the hospice grounds, as well as setting three trees in place.

Dr Lara Alloway, Winchester Hospice trustee and chief medical officer for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT), which runs the hospitals in Andover, Basingstoke and Winchester, said: “We were lucky enough to be invited to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in September to see the Psalm 23 Garden in all its glory, and it is beautiful. I have no doubt our patients, families and staff will love it as well when it is recreated in its new home at Winchester Hospice.

“It’s great to have a space where patients who wish to get outside and enjoy nature, can go to relax, enjoy the soothing sound of water, and can experience the wildlife and nature that encapsulates the landscape whilst they are being cared for within the hospice.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to the Bible Society for presenting us with this incredible gift for Winchester Hospice. It is an incredible honour and will be appreciated by our patients, their families, and our colleagues.

“I would also like to thank Sarah Eberle for creating such a picturesque addition for our hospice, and Mark Gregory, managing director for Landform Consultants Limited, and the team for all the hard work that they have dedicated to installing the garden for us.”

Designer Sarah Eberle said: “I am thrilled that the Psalm 23 Garden will have a permanent home at Winchester Hospice and hope that it will provide patients, their families and the staff a place to reflect and pause.

“This garden meant a great deal to me, and so it is a particular joy to know that it will be appreciated and enjoyed by many more people in the future.”

Once its move to the hospice is complete at the end of November, the garden will be enjoyed by patients, and their families and visitors.

Professor Paul Williams, chief executive officer of Bible Society, said: “I am delighted that Bible Society’s Psalm 23 Garden is going to Winchester Hospice. I can’t think of a better place for a garden that has provoked in so many people, during its time at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a sense of peace, tranquillity and restoration of the soul.”

The hospice, which opened in September, was created after a successful £4.4million Winchester Hospice charity fundraising campaign enabled HHFT, which owns and runs the hospice, to transform the former Burrell House into the much-needed 10-bed facility.

Winchester Hospice will be home to the palliative care team and will provide inpatient care, a hub for specialist outpatient services and therapies, and at-home patient care within the community.