See how the garden grows at prize-winning Market Drayton care home
A care home's flourishing garden which involves every resident was recognised in Market Drayton's annual In Bloom competition.
The staff at Hinstock Manor Care Home set up a new gardening initiative earlier this year, and they became so proud of their progress they entered the horticultural competition.
To their amazement they won in the care home category, and now the staff and 41 residents want to keep building on their success.
Clare Dunn, the home's deputy manager, said: "The residents wanted their own individual patch of gardening because they miss gardening from home.
"We saw an idea on Facebook where you use pallets. Each person can have their own flower, you can take it off the pallet and bring it into the home.
"Some have little buckets, some have little cups, and some of the more able-bodied residents grow some tomatoes. They tried cabbage, it wasn't very successful but it was worth a try.
"We grew our little garden, residents' families helped us. One of the residents' sons actually donated a lot of flowers."
She said that families and staff alike have been bringing in new plants to grow, and helped the garden develop into an award-winning plot.
"We've learned how to do hanging baskets, the residents go out every evening and water the flowers. There's bird feed out there so there's always wildlife, and there's a resident squirrel.
"It's been a little bit of an idea that's grown into a beautiful thing for the residents. We entered the competition, never did we think we would win.
"But we got the phone call saying we won it, we told the residents and they were so happy we won. We're already discussing next year, what we can create and what we can do.
"This is their little bit of home, it's their home and we're just treasured to work here."
