The View From The Hospital: How Can Plants And Gardens Transform Healthcare? with Rachel De Thame, Dr Sue Stuart-Smith

Event Schedule
5pm–6pm: Explore the Plant Library–with a pop-up Plant Sale from Sunnyside Rural Trust’s Orchard Nursery

5.30pm Drinks in The Plant Library
6pm–7.30pm: Talk. The View From The Hospital: How Can Plants And Gardens Transform Healthcare? with Rachel De Thame, Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, Jinny Blom, Darrel Gale and Chris Young
7.30pm Close

'In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication’ - Oliver Sacks (1933-2015)

Join us in The Apple House for this one-off event where all donations and profits from ticket sales fund an innovative project to redevelop the hospital garden around the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Hertfordshire, spearheaded by Matthew Biggs, author and panellist on Radio 4’s BBC Gardeners’ Question Time.

Hospitals are some of the most important buildings in our community, but they are often poorly designed and devoid of nature. Yet scientific evidence is long proven that recovery rates are dramatically increased and pain perception decreased when patients look at nature rather than walls and concrete.

In a unique panel discussion, some of the leading minds in garden design and restorative healthcare–Rachel de Thame, Dr Sue Stuart-Smith and Jinny Blom, Darrel Gale–will explore how we can make our hospitals and their environs greener, with more beautiful and healing spaces to the benefit of patients, their families and staff. The event will be chaired by gardens consultant Chris Young.

The event will be hosted in the Apple House eco-barn by The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health, a not-for-profit founded by Sue and Tom Stuart-Smith, to raise money for improvements to the gardens at the Mount Vernon Cancer Treatment Centre in Hertfordshire.

Tickets to the event include access to Tom Stuart-Smith’s Plant Library, a living catalogue of over 2000 perennials and bulbs and a welcome drink.

Photo credit: Jason Ingram