Therapy Garden
The creation of a new therapy garden on the front lawn of the Warneford is a central part of the Warneford Hospital’s 200th‑anniversary commemorations, drawing attention to the important role played by gardens and gardening in promoting mental wellbeing, both in the nineteenth century and today.
Nineteenth-century asylum (as psychiatric hospitals were known) gardens were important therapeutic spaces where patients took exercise, relaxed, worked and socialised. They had an ornamental lay-out, with lawns, paths, and borders in the country-house style. There were separate gardens for men and women and the boundaries were either fenced, walled or hedged.
Maintenance of the grounds, gardening and farming formed part of the therapeutic regimen associated with moral treatment, a way of treating patients that emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The principles of moral treatment included providing patients with a supportive, pleasant environment and treating them with respect and kindness. It emphasised the importance of engagement in activities, particularly outdoor activities that brought patients into contact with nature and fresh air.
Dates and venues:
All year
The Warneford Hospital, Oxford
The new therapy garden
Recent research has shown that green spaces are considered just as important today in supporting patient recovery and staff wellbeing. Gardening remains an important therapeutic activity undertaken at Warneford Hospital, and the Oxford Health Arts Partnership (OHAP) plays a vital role in encouraging service users to take part in creative health activities across Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
The newly-created Warneford 200 therapy garden emphasises how important gardens and green spaces have been to mental wellbeing since the Warneford first opened in 1826.
The garden has been designed and created with direct participation of service users, staff, volunteers and community partners. Together they created 17 gabion planters, creating a tree walkway as well as 7 large metal planters created out of pig arcs.
These planters reference the historical importance of the farm and market garden at the Warneford Hospital over the past 200 years.
The large metal planters have been adopted by the different wards at the Warneford and service users have selected and planted bulbs, herbaceous perennials and shrubs.
The garden is now being used for a series of workshops which will develop greater understanding of the importance of gardens and gardening for mental wellbeing.
You can see the progress with the new garden here:
