The Friends of Airedale (FoA) has announced the winner of its annual Courtyard Competition, choosing a ‘courtyard of glorious colour’ to receive the £200 garden centre voucher first prize.
Anne Robertson, who heads a small team of garden volunteers in the hospital’s Electro-Medical Engineering department, was awarded ‘Gold’ in the competition which aims to encourage staff around the hospital to keep the building’s courtyard areas looking attractive for the benefit of patients, visitors and staff.
Lead judge and FoA volunteer John Lofthouse said: “Anne and the team have created a truly lovely outside space filled with flowers and colours that is a delight to see when walking along the hospital corridors. It makes such a difference when the courtyards look loved and cared for.”
Because of ongoing building works at Airedale, this year’s competition focussed on ‘innovation’. Scaffolding in many of the courtyard areas meant this year’s entrants were restricted to planting in existing flower beds or pots and had to avoid planting anything against walls or in the ground.
Judges felt the Therapy Admin team, led by Nicola Stone and winners of the Silver award, had managed the difficulties of scaffolding particularly well with a colourful display of garden furniture, stone flags and decorative kites. They described the kites in their still-scaffolded Wellbeing Courtyard as “suggesting freedom, uplift and hope”.
The Bronze award went to the Nursery Rhyme garden created by Sahdya Mushtaq around the children’s outpatient department. Judges felt it was both ‘fun and engaging’ with a wealth of detail that would hold the interest of youngsters visiting the department.
Said John: “It was a really difficult decision this year as these three garden areas were all quite different in both scale and approach but each had winning merit. The competition is just another way in which the Friends work to encourage a better experience for patients and visitors to the hospital and we’re delighted that there are still staff working here who are prepared to put in their own time and effort to create these amazing spaces.”
Photograph – Anne Robertson in her garden of delights