Harefield Healing Garden
A garden at Harefield Hospital for patients, their visitors, and staff. More needed than ever in this current COVID 19 climate.
We have raised over £180,000 to date and we are thrilled to be completing the final stages of the garden build!
Follow our progress on Instagram
We need to raise a further £25,000 for the first two years garden maintenance.
Can you help?
Harefield Healing Garden
A garden at Harefield Hospital for patients, their visitors, and staff. More needed than ever in this current COVID 19 climate.
We have raised over £180,000 to date and we are thrilled to be completing the final stages of the garden build!
Follow our progress on Instagram
We need to raise a further £25,000 for the first two years garden maintenance.
Can you help?
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“Somewhere to sit, to listen and to get some fresh air would be wonderful. The ward is far from peaceful.”
A Harefield patient
Why does Harefield Hospital need a garden?

As a specialist heart and lung centre, many of Harefield’s patients have life-threatening conditions, needing a transplant or other surgery, and many spend months at Harefield. Some suffer post-traumatic stress from their experience.
Although Harefield has green spaces, most areas near the hospital are used for parking. But one area on the right as you enter the hospital, which historically was a garden, could be made accessible for patients. Our goal has been to transform this area into a healing garden to benefit patients, their visitors, and staff; a calm and therapeutic environment that promotes physical and mental wellbeing.
Patients with access to nature:
√ Suffered fewer complications after surgery
√ Used less pain medication
√ Experienced more positive feelings and fewer negative emotions
√ Patients with a garden view were discharged sooner than those who looked out on an inanimate brick wall
Roger Ulrich “Effects of Gardens on Health Outcomes”
The evidence
It is well known that nature aids recovery and can improve our mental and physical states, yet it was only in 1984 the evidence for the healing effect of gardens was first officially documented in the journal “Science.” There is now a wealth of overwhelming evidence that shows how important nature and gardens are for our health and wellbeing. And this need extends to staff, and patients’ visitors and families as well as to the patients themselves.
But rather than reproducing the easily accessible evidence, we thought we would give you the words of Harefield’s own patients and staff:
“A garden will offer a vital breathing space, somewhere to escape away from the wards.”
“It would give me the motivation to go outside”
“Seeing the seasons change makes you feel part of the world”
“My husband would have loved this garden. It would have given him somewhere away from the wards to enjoy being with his grandchildren.”
Our physiotherapists welcome the garden as: “somewhere for patients to get back on their feet” – “an important first step to gaining confidence and feeling part of the world again.”
Helen Doyle, Matron of Rowan Ward says: “We’ve noticed that patients are happier and more positive when they are outside, away from the hospital environment. It lifts their mood and is a nicer place to socialise with their family”
Our hope is that in the words of a Harefield Transplant Fellow, the garden will provide for all: “a place where you can just sit and lose the concept of time.”
“A place of quietness. A quiet, calm space, nature to view and remember that all life changes”
A Harefield patient


Rosie Pope
My son Will received a new heart in 2013 when he was 20. He spent many weeks at Harefield when first diagnosed, at 16 years old, with dilated cardiomyopathy, and more than 6 months there aged 20. He had a VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) implanted in 2009 but was back at Harefield on the urgent transplant list four years later.
We saw Harefield all year round. In Spring, Summer and Autumn, when possible, Will would sit on a bench overlooking the road. In winter the nurses pushed him from ITU to the front doors of the hospital to see and feel the snow.
Will suffered from ITU syndrome and took many months to recover after his transplant. On a cold crisp day in February, as he was too weak to get into a car, I bumped him along the uneven pavement to the Old Orchard, in a borrowed wheelchair supported by pillows, pulling him
Since Will first became ill I have raised funds for the Brompton & Harefield Hospital working for their Charity in Special Events. I am now, as a volunteer, focusing on the garden.
Who are we?

Rosie Pope
My son Will received a new heart in 2013 when he was 20. He spent many weeks at Harefield when first diagnosed, at 16 years old, with dilated cardiomyopathy, and more than 6 months there aged 20. He had a VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) implanted in 2009 but was back at Harefield on the urgent transplant list four years later.
We saw Harefield all year round. In Spring, Summer and Autumn, when possible, Will would sit on a bench overlooking the road. In winter the nurses pushed him from ITU to the front doors of the hospital to see and feel the snow.
Will suffered from ITU syndrome and took many months to recover after his transplant. On a cold crisp day in February, as he was too weak to get into a car, I bumped him along the uneven pavement to the Old Orchard, in a borrowed wheelchair supported by pillows, pulling him
Since Will first became ill I have raised funds for the Brompton & Harefield Hospital working for their Charity in Special Events. I am now, as a volunteer, focusing on the garden.

Catherine Perry
Rosie has held the healing garden in her heart ever since her son Will


Catherine Perry

My children would have loved to have visited their grandad while he was in
Rosie has held the healing garden in her heart ever since her son Will

Recent Healing Garden developments
Plant Appeal
Please help us fill the Healing Garden with beautiful, sensory planting for all to enjoy. We would love your help in filling the Healing Garden with beautiful, sensory plants and flowers for patients, visitors, and staff to enjoy! Every £10 donation buys a 2-litre...
EXCITING NEWS!!
We are thrilled to announce that following years of research, designing, planning and fundraising, we are now in a position to start the Healing Garden build. What better time to reward the patients, their visitors and the NHS staff, who have been working 'on the...
Alscot Lodge open garden 2020 – Due to COVID19 the open garden has been postponed to date TBA…
Karen and Jim Eyre are kindly opening their beautiful garden for charity on Sunday 21st June 2020 2pm - 5pm. This is a beautifully designed garden with its fabulous planting and plenty to interest all. Head Gardener Richard Maskell will be on hand to offer advice at...
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All funds raised to go to the Harefield Healing Garden; a restricted appeal of the

All funds raised to go to the Harefield Healing Garden; a restricted appeal of the
Thank you to our generous supporters




