Bayley is Blooming

Gardening is a recommended activity for keeping your motor skills sharp, support to improve hand eye coordination and all around fitness depending on what type of gardening you undertake.

The garden in the ‘Whitehouse’ has undertaken a makeover thanks to the clients in our older groups. Upon returning in person last year, the staff Shannan and Ketki asked Susan, Kathy C, Jane Matthews, Malcolm, Stephen D, Peter H, Mark P, Soknaan and Bernie if they would like to do a gardening program, and the response was a unanimous ‘yes’.

Selecting plants was the first task and so the groups used iPads to research their choices which were mainly colourful plants. Some people already had their favourite plants and the suggestion of sunflowers came up quite a bit.

A second group became involved in February as the garden project became bigger than anticipated with multiple garden beds available to cultivate.

The gardening journey has been driven by client choice the entire way with sunflowers, carnations, poppies, daffodils and tulips being planted. A lemon and lime tree have also made their way into the garden thanks to Stephen insisting they absolutely had to be included.

Mark and Bernie have been phenomenal with helping staff member, Richard with preparing flower beds. Malcolm and Peter have been doing a great job with Ketki and the flower patch while Kathy and Jane have brought the garden indoors with a sensory seedling planter.

Joy and Susan will help with various tasks including watering. It is a hands on activity that everyone is involved in as they enjoy getting outdoors and seeing the results of their hard work when the plants begin to bloom. A stunning crop of sunflowers have already come to life.

The garden has been supported by other staff members who have donated established plants to help fill out the gardens beds while the seedlings grow.

Moving forward, the group would like to develop a fern bed, rose bed and a gerbera/sunflower flower bed. There are also plans to do some art work on the white brick fence that the main garden bed sits along.