Category: Gardens

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Travel agency’s garden gift helps hospice grow

We are truly grateful to Clarity Travel Management for donating £1,000 worth of gardening equipment to the Hospice.

Staff from the global business travel agency – which has a head office in Manchester – recently volunteered their time with us and were blown away by our stunning gardens.

Steve Riley, Executive Director of Operations, lives in Stalybridge and has family members who have needed the Hospice’s vital services.

After receiving a positive impression and a warm welcome when he visited Willow Wood, Steve and his colleagues wanted to do something to help make a difference.

As well as gifting us brooms, shears, watering cans and an array of other tools for our gardeners to use, the firm has also pledged to donate scaffolding planks and wooden pallets, and support the Hospice in the future.

Our Head Gardener, Sophie Cordingley, said: “We really appreciate the fantastic donation and the generosity of Clarity Travel Management – we cannot thank them enough.

“This high-quality equipment will make such a difference and we will start putting it to good use immediately. It will make everything so much easier for us as a garden team.”

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A garden of memories

Our Memory Fountain is the centrepiece of our beautiful gardens, which provide a serene environment for our patients and those closest to them.

The fountain houses beautiful Memory Stones, which can form algae and moss over the warmer months when the sun shines down.

Our head gardener Sophie came up with the idea of making the fountain have the appearance of a reflection pool by installing a metal framework.

This gives the impression of the stones floating on the surface – a beautiful way to display the stones which mean so much to patients and those closest to them.

Dukinfield Metal Spinners in Audenshaw, a local family business, were only too happy to help.

The team took on the design, creation and building of the heavy framework and also had the entire structure powder coated.

The installation was placed in the fountain but unfortunately a leak was spotted.

However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated volunteer gardeners, with support from our fabulous corporate volunteers, it has been fixed and the fountain can now be enjoyed again by everyone associated with the Hospice.

David Johnson, one of our volunteer gardeners working on the project, told us: “The original pond was filled with plastic boxes and then stones and Memory Stones on top of that. It was just too difficult to clean, so it was decided we needed a platform which Dukinfield Metal Spinners offered to help with, which was fantastic.

“We cleaned the old pond out and a crew of volunteers from Marks & Spencer took all the stones out, and gently cleaned them, put the new platform in, filled it up and it looked wonderful.

“But then it leaked which we were really disappointed about. It has been eight years since we lifted everything out so the silt had got in somewhere.

“We’ve now put in a pond liner after lifting everything out and we’ve put protection cups on the stand legs for each of those sections so it doesn’t cut into the pond liner. A bit of finesse was required and it took several hours but we got the job done and it looks fantastic again.”

For more information on dedicating a stone to a loved one, visit https://willowwood.org.uk/make-a-donation/giving-to-willow-wood/memory-stones/

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Hospice’s memory fountain has a new look

Our Memory Fountain is the centrepiece of our beautiful gardens, which provide a serene environment for our patients and those closest to them.

The fountain houses beautiful Memory Stones, which can form algae and moss over the warmer months when the sun shines down.

Our head gardener Sophie came up with the idea of making the fountain have the appearance of a reflection pool by installing a metal framework.

This gives the impression of the stones floating on the surface – a beautiful way to display the stones which mean so much to patients and those closest to them.

Dukinfield Metal Spinners in Audenshaw, a local family business, were only too happy to help.

The team took on the design, creation and building of the heavy framework and also had the entire structure powder coated.

The installation was placed in the fountain but unfortunately a leak was spotted.

However, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated volunteer gardeners, with support from our fabulous corporate volunteers, it has been fixed and the fountain can now be enjoyed again by everyone associated with the Hospice.

David Johnson, one of our volunteer gardeners working on the project, told us: “The original pond was filled with plastic boxes and then stones and Memory Stones on top of that. It was just too difficult to clean, so it was decided we needed a platform which Dukinfield Metal Spinners offered to help with, which was fantastic.

“We cleaned the old pond out and a crew of volunteers from Marks & Spencer took all the stones out, and gently cleaned them, put the new platform in, filled it up and it looked wonderful.

“But then it leaked which we were really disappointed about. It has been eight years since we lifted everything out so the silt had got in somewhere.

“We’ve now put in a pond liner after lifting everything out and we’ve put protection cups on the stand legs for each of those sections so it doesn’t cut into the pond liner. A bit of finesse was required and it took several hours but we got the job done and it looks fantastic again.”