THE gardens at the Great Oaks Hospice have been a source of peace and tranquil- ity for patients and staff for years but on Sunday (June 27) the wider community had the chance to have a look.

The garden was designed by Newent-based Julian Dowle after the hospice opened in 2004 but Sunday’s National Gardens Scheme event was the first time anybody could go and have a look.

Chief executive of the hospice, Ruth Keeble, said: “It’s really important to patients and as we see patients returning, they’ll be able to experience our lovely gardens again and get some peace and quiet.

“There are lots of people locally who have never seen this because it is tucked down the drive.

“The idea was to get people over the threshold into the garden.”

Although designed by a pro- fessional, the garden has been maintained over the years by volunteers and the small team of part-time care-takers

Ruth said: “Its been volunteers and part-time caretakers and staff who have been working on it for the last three months to get it as good as we’ve got it.

“We’ve also had help from community groups – the Forestry Commission came in, the ladies from Lloyds Bank in Cinderford came and planted all this a few weeks ago.

“Lots of the garden centres have given us plants to put in so we’ve had lots of local support. It’s been tremendous.”

She said patients are starting to return and having some support in small groups or one-to-one but the hospice still can’t open completely because of Covid.

“It’s been a strange year because we haven’t been able to have people in the building but the nurses and therapists have been going to people at home so we’ve actually seen more peo- ple than ever.

“Lots of the garden centres have given us plants to put in so we’ve had lots of local support. It’s been tremendous.”

“We’ve seen over 400 people in the last year which is fantastic.

“We didn’t stop we just kept going – they have been out there right through the pandemic and now we are doing some here and some in people’s homes.”