Sensory garden for Albrighton nursing home
A nursing home has completed its home-grown sensory garden with help from residents and the community.
The Cedars Nursing Home in Albrighton has received many donations from the community and thanks to the help of volunteers and staff, they have now completed their sensory garden.
Residents wanted it to be accessible for everyone with lots of bright colours.
They have decorated tyres to look like animals, created a herb garden, planted flowers and even made an upcycled frog pond from an old antique sink dug into the ground.
Rhiannon Geran, a trainee mental health nurse who works at the home, wanted the residents to be able to get outside and have a special area in the garden.
"Finishing the garden has taken around three weeks," she said. "Many sensory gardens have big sculptures that are concreted into the ground and things but the residents here wanted it to be a bit more whimsical and upcycled and home-made."
"Everything was done with the view of allowing them to interact with things while still in their chairs. The residents have really really enjoyed it and their families also when they come to visit.
"It's almost an incentive to get outside. Even for those people who tend to not go out much, when their families come over they persuade them and they really enjoy it because it's colourful and all the little things make them smile.
"We have painted animals onto the pathways to try to keep the decorations as low as possible so they are accessible for everyone. A lot of the planters are free-standing so when the residents and carers go out they can pick up the flowers and plants and look at them easily.
"We've made a swan out of a tyre and a mini herb garden in a planter. We repainted parts and planted new seeds. It was a mix of old and new. Residents didn't want it to be a big project, they just wanted it to be accessible."
Donations of flowers, plants, furniture, and even tyres and golf balls were gifted to the home from businesses in and around the village.
The residents also wanted animals to be encouraged into the garden as part of the project.
"We already have a lot of foxes, frogs and butterflies come into the garden," Rhiannon said. "But some of them had seen in the news recently about the issue with bees being endangered. So the first thing they suggested was planting lavender for the bees. They then hope to use the lavender for crafts in the future."
