Hospital gardens project seeks funding

A funding campaign to establish a new volunteer gardening project at Airedale hospital has been launched by Those Plant People.  Professional horticulturalists, Andrew and Pippa Chapman of Steeton are working in partnership with Friends of Airedale to set up the scheme which needs to raise a minimum of £3000 to start the project to revamp the many garden areas at the hospital.

Pippa’s idea began during a short stay at Airedale, “I was looking out on a bare gravel filled courtyard and tried distracting myself with all the possibilities of creating beautiful healing gardens. Scientific research shows that even just looking at beautiful green spaces can improve recovery and wellbeing, so it just seemed such a tragedy that because of the decreased NHS funds available to maintain them, the outdoor areas at the hospital gardens are no longer developed.”

The University of Minnesota has conducted extensive research into healing environments. Their findings conclusively indicate that ‘viewing scenes of nature reduces anger, fear, and stress and increases pleasant feelings. Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, it contributes to your physical wellbeing, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. It may even reduce mortality, according to scientists such as public health researchers Stamatakis and Mitchell. Meanwhile Robert Ulrich found that in a study of gall bladder patients, those with a view of nature tolerated pain better, had fewer negative effects and spent less time in hospital.

In order to raise the funds which will enable the project at Airedale Hospital to be set up and gain some grant support, Pippa and the team will be utilising a crowd-funding facility on Google which allows people to donate as much or as little as they are able at the click of a button online.  Totally secure, Crowdfunder is the UK’s largest rewards based crowdfunding network, having launched more than 4000 projects and raised over £2m to help turn great ideas like this one into a reality.

Pippa and Andrew have been involved in many community gardening projects in their local area and are excited that the project will enable them to manage a volunteer gardening group, ‘Let’s Grow Airedale’ to design and create new planting schemes at Airedale hospital. Subject to raising the funds from now,  starting in May they aim to create beautiful, healing landscapes for patients, staff, visitors and volunteers to enjoy and to put in place a long term solution for sustaining them and helping them to flourish. 

Pippa explains “We want to transform the courtyards overlooked by the corridors of the hospital and create flower filled meadows, mini orchards, year round colour, fun outdoor sculptures and herb garden beds around the grounds. There are so many possibilities. We need to raise a minimum of £3000 to set up the volunteer group but we want to raise as much as possible as we have big plans to ensure the success of the project and its long term sustainability.”

It’s an opportunity to anyone who enjoys gardening to channel their enthusiasm into a project that benefits the whole community, as everyone spends time at the hospital at some time in their lives, usually during difficult times when a cheerful and attractive environment is even more important in helping to maintain a healthy spirit.”

To help by donating for the scheme to reach its launch target by 27^th April you can give online at

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/lets-grow-airedale or in an envelope marked ‘Let’s Grow Airedale project’ handed in to the Friends of Airedale cafe at the hospital.  If you would like to volunteer to help with gardening, with no experience necessary, please call Pippa Chapman on 07704 178585 or email thatplantgirl@hotmail.co.uk.