Horatio's Garden South West - Salisbury
The first Horatio’s Garden opened in 2012 at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre at Salisbury District Hospital. The Centre serves patients from the whole of the south of England, from the Scilly Isles to Hastings and all the way up to the M4 corridor.
The garden was brought to life by celebrated garden designer Cleve West, who has won a remarkable total of six RHS gold medals for his gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show. The contractor for the garden was Martin Gomm from Wycliffe Landscapes. In 2014, Martin won two BALI awards for the garden in the Community and Schools Development category and also a new category of Outstanding Charitable Contribution.
Our wonderful Head Gardener, Stephen Hackett, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the garden and Susie Atterbury delivers the garden therapy programme in collaboration with the spinal centre’s occupational therapists.
“We couldn’t be more grateful to have a beautiful place which is peaceful and private to relax in. It has been incredibly beneficial to my father’s rehabilitation.” – Daughter of a patient at Salisbury.
“At Horatio’s Garden you can get together with other patients, talk about your injuries and encourage each other. I have a lovely time with the OT group. However, you can also find a quiet corner if you want to sit, close your eyes and listen to the birds.” – Gillian, a patient in Salisbury.
Would you like to visit the garden? Please contact our Tour Coordinator Lucy Shergold by emailing lucyS@horatiosgarden.org.uk or call 07902906178 for more information.
Cleve West
Cleve West, who is a six-time Chelsea gold medal winner, created the garden and won three Society of Garden Designers awards in 2015 for the design. The Public or Commercial Outdoor Space Award, the People’s Choice Award and the most prestigious award, the Judges’ Choice, was also awarded to Cleve for Horatio’s Garden.
The Judges said: “This is what healing gardens should be like; if only they all had a similar design. It has beautiful planting that works with the scale of the building and helps to reconnect people to nature.”
The Design
Cleve’s design brilliantly incorporates the form of the spine in a series of low limestone walls, which double as seating for families. These walls draw the eye to the gentle hills beyond and curve through mixed planting towards a large gathering space.
An apple archway leads to a summerhouse and there’s the calming sound of water flowing into a long rill. Everywhere the benefits of nature can be felt.
Plants have been chosen for their aesthetic and multi-sensory qualities: grasses to catch the wind, herbs to smell and taste, and shrubs and trees for texture and winter structure. Mature beech hedging was donated from Cleve West’s 2012 RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden, which was awarded the title of Best in Show. Native hedging is planted around the perimeter fence.
There are 23 trees planted in the garden, including Betula nigra and Amelanchier lamarckii, the berries of which attract birds to the garden. Shaggy box balls and rosemary punctuate a looser herbaceous palette, and perennials such as echinacea, foeniculum, aster and the aptly named Aruncus ‘Horatio’ bring texture, colour and scent.
“When I sat under the arbour, hearing the birds and the running water and seeing the garden around me made me feel as if I was back home in my garden again.” – A patient in Salisbury.
Stephen Hackett
“I trained as a gardener in 2010 and never imagined that I’d be entrusted with a garden like Horatio’s Garden South West. If the ideal job is doing something you love, which you are (seemingly) good at, and which has value for other people, then it ticks all the boxes. Gardening has always been an important part of my life, but professional horticulture can sometimes be a solitary occupation. Not so here, where the enthusiasm and commitment of the amazing volunteer team enlivens even the coldest, wettest days.
The garden is wonderful, and so too is the opportunity to indulge my inner plantsman by growing new plants in our greenhouse and polytunnel. To know that all the effort is of such enormous value to the patients and their families is such a reward. I’ve worked in some lovely gardens elsewhere, but never one which was so tangibly appreciated and loved by those who use it.”
Click below to hear more from our Head Gardeners about how to get the best out of your gardens all year round!
Patient Activities
Find Us
Horatio's Garden South West - Salisbury
The Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre
Salisbury District Hospital
Odstock Road
Salisbury
SP2 8BJ
To arrange a group tour of Horatio’s Garden please contact Tour Coordinator Lucy Shergold by emailing tours@horatiosgarden.org.uk or calling 07902 906178. For any other query please ring 01722 326834.
Enter the hospital site using Entrance B and drive past the green. Go over three zebra crossings and follow the road around the left bend. As the road goes down the hill, the entrance to Horatio's Garden is to the left of the next zebra crossing.
Car parking is available in car park 10 (pay and display) or car park 8 (ticket and pay on exit)