AUGUST 2008 NEWS
We did it!
The first show garden built entirely by Gardening Leave veterans won a Gold Medal at Ayr Flower Show at the beginning of the month.
We started building the garden which was designed to replicate our logo: blue sky; green grass and brown earth surrounded by a wall to symbolise the walled garden, on the Monday and it was completed late on the Wednesday evening, in time for the Judges on the Thursday – no mean feat and we were all still talking to each other at the end – just!
Huge thanks must go to all the veterans and volunteers who carted stone, laid bricks, grew veg, trained sweet peas, laid turf and all the hundreds of other things which needed to be done to create the finished article. It is a great achievement and demonstrates how able, skilled and determined veterans are.
The Flower Show lasted for 3 days and we handed out lots of leaflets and talked to lots of people; as a result we have gained 3 new volunteers which is great news. Without local support and back-up from volunteers, it would be almost impossible for Gardening Leave to develop and grow and to continue to provide a safe, peaceful environment where our veterans can be together and have something meaningful to do. I have written a Volunteers Handbook which explains what combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is, and we are planning Training Days for all existing and potential volunteers this autumn.
August seems to have been completely taken up by building the show garden and then taking it down and getting our garden at Auchincruive ship shape again afterwards. Our veg is growing well and John the chef at Hollybush has been plied with garlic, tomatoes, shallots, beans and green on a regular basis.
Paul has declared us the winners of the Giant Onion Challenge (see January’s Newsletter) and when we looked at the show veg at Ayr Flower Show, several veterans pronounced that they ‘could do much better than that for next year’ so he has really started something!
Gardening Leave has teamed up with Justgiving who provide a secure online donation service for charities and people raising money for charity.
As yet we receive no statutory funding so every contribution to our funds is hugely welcome and this is a great way for people who want to support our work to do so quickly and securely – they even sort out the Gift Aid! Just click here to donate…..
I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures which tell the story of our show garden and that you will share my pride in the veterans’ achievement. We can never do enough to support and appreciate them but it won’t stop Gardening Leave and our friends from trying!
JULY 2008 NEWS
Trustees, travel and tomatoes!
July was yet another busy month which began with a Trustees Meeting with an Agenda as long as your arm – there was certainly plenty to discuss with the Trustees and we did lots of planning for Gardening Leave’s future.
I left Gardening Leave for a whole week (the 1st time ever!) in the capable hands of John Cliff, a fellow Horticultural Therapist who had kindly offered to cover for me if I ever needed it, during a visit to Auchincruive last summer. Most of the week was a busmans’ holiday in London when I had more meetings to discuss Gardening Leave Mark II at Royal Hospital Chelsea. My last stop before heading home was the Combat Stress AGM on board HQS Wellington on the River Thames.
This was a great opportunity to meet other people who work with and for Combat Stress and to update myself about the Society’s long-term aims and strategies. We live in exciting and challenging times and the care of this country’s veterans must remain at the forefront of the political agenda at all times in order that we can strive to improve the level and standard of care we provide to veterans and their families.
It was a great relief to get back to the peace and ‘safety’ of Auchincruive after my travels to find that everything in the garden had sprouted, ripened and swelled in 10 days and John and Pamela had made a great start with the display vegetables for our show garden at Ayr Flower Show (more of that later…!).
Although we have had our share of wet weather, the Wednesday barbequeues have all survived and it has been great to spend so much of our days outside in the garden where there always seems to be plenty of watering, weeding, harvesting, sowing and hoeing to be done.
July also saw the final total of TT Trotter’s fantastic fundraising run in London. They raised over £20,000 for Gardening Leave via Justgiving and on behalf of everyone at Gardening Leave, a Huge, Huge thanks you for your incredible generosity.
As ever,
JUNE 2008 NEWS
Another busy month which saw the Victoria Cross poppy blooming in her full splendour, new volunteers and veterans, and the welcome return of some familiar Hollybush faces!
I’m glad to say that the barbequeue which my parents kindly gave me as a wedding present has now found a good spot on the terrace and Wednesday is now officially BBQ Day!
We sold lots of plants at the Hollybush Summer Fete on a glorious Saturday afternoon which should keep us in burgers for a few Wednesdays to come. The tomatoes, chillis and Victoria Cross poppy plants all sold out and we christened the trailer which Chris and his son converted for us, towed by the trusty Discovery.
June at Gardening Leave saw visits from Glenda Williams, a Horticultural Therapist from South Australia, John Scott MSP, and Professor Jacqueline Atkinson and her Researcher Jacquie Reilly – more of them next month…!!
On the volunteers front our numbers are rising steadily and I’m hoping that we will reach ‘double figures’ by the end of the summer although if we counted volunteers’ dogs as well, we would have got there long ago..!!
Our thanks to Simon Cullen who completed the Great Scottish Walk in Edinburgh to raise money for Gardening Leave and Combat Stress and to all our other generous donors who help to keep the Gardening Leave show on the road. Every fundraising initiative is hugely appreciated as we do not as yet receive any statutory funding.
At the end of the month I paid my first visit to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh for a reception given by Veterans Scotland to mark Veterans Awareness Day. It was good to meet other people from the service charities community and to listen to what the Scottish Government is planning to do to recognise veterans and help them to live more normal and productive lives – after all, that’s why we all do what we do.
As ever,
This month Gardening Leave made the front cover of Soldier Magazine! So in a break with tradition we are reprinting the article in full.
Report: Karen Thomas
Pictures: Steve Dock
AS the popular BBC TV series Ground Force transformed neglected wildernesses into majestic landscapes, so gardening is now proving helpful to veterans reclaiming their lives from the wastelands of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cultivating flowerbeds or growing Sunday’s roast potatoes is the great pottering escape for this green-fingered nation. Out in the fresh air disturbed only by scuttling insects, gardening is a tranquil and absorbing pastime. For troubled ex-soldiers, digging into a different sort of trench from those of the front lines allows them the freedom to think around problems weighing heavily on their minds. Unchecked, that weight can wither the work, relationships and lives of Servicemen and women mentally battered by the harrowing events of war. But tending to a calm oasis can relieve the burden.
First recognised in the USA as alleviating the debilitating symptoms of PTSD among Vietnam War veterans, the seeds of horticultural therapy are now being planted in a quiet corner of Scotland. Gardening Leave, a charity founded by Anna Baker Cresswell, is bearing fruit as a handy tool in the set of treatments used to uproot PTSD. Granted a walled garden at the Scottish Agricultural College at Auchincruive, the businesswoman-turnedhorticultural therapist teamed up with Combat Stress, the ex-Services Mental Welfare Society, to start the gardening project. Veterans from nearby Hollybush House, one of three Combat Stress residential treatment centres, are offered a daily dose of Gardening Leave as required. They don’t have to be Alan Titchmarsh to contribute to the 186m-long terraced garden, which gently breaks a selfinflicted isolation from friends and family. “If the veterans live at home they are invariably on their own and they quickly lose the ability to communicate because they are not engaging with people. It’s easier for veterans to talk here, as there is a common ground – you can always just talk about the garden if you don’t want to talk about your problems,” Anna told Soldier, explaining the importance of the surrounding wall. “Walled gardens are very special because if the veterans don’t have a clear view of what’s around them, they are permanently on their guard and always looking over their shoulder. But here they can see all around them and relax.”
Anna supervises novices and experts alike in growing vegetables that will be served up at Hollybush mealtimes and restoring Scotland’s only national collection of poppies, appropriately the military’s symbol of remembrance. She explained how the perpetual gardening cycle addresses depressing thoughts of a future that holds nothing, which can make the veterans’ lives seem pointless. “PTSD sufferers have a sense of a foreshortened future – they can’t see the point of anything. Once you explain to them that the food they’re helping to grow goes back to Hollybush House then there’s a point to it and that’s what makes the difference. Veterans can end up frightened of not finishing something. They get angry and feel unworthy so they don’t start it in the first place. “Gardening can increase their selfesteem by getting them to start and finish something in a morning.”
Gardening Leave is just one approach provided at Hollybush House to tackle the damaging effects of PTSD. Maj Garry Walker, head clinician, agreed that horticultural therapy offered a gentle way to build up confidence and self-esteem in veterans who, on average, endure 14 years before they find their way to Combat Stress. “Some veterans can find it very difficult to break the ice and build trust but Gardening Leave can help. It is a very important part of therapy,” he explained, outlining the other treatments available. “There are sessions on loss,anger management, hopes and fears and expectations, and Gardening Leave is another part of the jigsaw. The one-toone sessions can be especially intense and stressful but Gardening Leave can diffuse those emotions and allow for quiet reflection.”
Next on the renovation list at the Auchincruive gardens is the Stovehouse. Weatherproofed and kitted out as a greenhouse, it will be a warm and welllit haven for veterans depressed by the long dark winter days. But Anna is also casting her horticultural therapist’s eye on opportunities to tame more gardening and PTSD jungles. “The next Gardening Leave project will probably be at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. I’m just waiting for evidence that horticultural therapy is an effective therapy so it is accepted and recognised as a treatment
intervention for this PTSD group.”
MAY 2008 NEWS
May has been a month of growth all round – the greenhouses are bursting with tomato and chilli plants, the rhododendrons in the gardens at Auchincruive are looking fabulous and our merry band of Volunteers is growing too!
At the beginning of May I was invited by Veterans Scotland to attend a conference in Edinburgh which dealt with Veterans’ issues in Scotland. It was very interesting to hear progress reports from various speakers and to meet other people and organisations involved with the care of Veterans in Scotland and I hope that it bodes well for future co-operation between Westminster and Holyrood.
The Rotary Club in Irvine kindly invited me to speak to them about Gardening Leave and what we are doing at Auchincruive. When I told them about our plans for the Stovehouse, they told me that several of their members have electrical, plumbing and joinery businesses and could be called upon to help during the project – I won’t forget their kind offer!
Two vital members of the Stovehouse Steering Group (SSG) have visited Gardening Leave at Auchincruive for the first time this month; Jim Pollock has agreed to advise us in his capacity as a chartered surveyor and John Walker will help us with the legal aspects of the Stovehouse repair project and the Trustees are extremely grateful to both of them for giving their precious time and expertise to Gardening Leave and our Veterans.
Chelsea Flower Show was amazing – I spent Tuesday afternoon in the grounds of Royal Hospital among the jaw-dropping show gardens and fabulous floral displays in the Grand Pavilion. Truly an inspirational experience, made even better after my morning meeting with the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation www.oswaldstoll.org.uk to discuss plans for the next Gardening Leave project which I hope will be at Royal Hospital Chelsea – their support is crucial and it brought the reality a step closer.
Gardening Leave was represented at Gardening Scotland in Edinburgh in a garden designed by 2nd year Garden Design students from the Scottish Agricultural College at Auchincruive for which they received a Silver Gilt medal. A great achievement and a wonderful opportunity to bring Gardening Leave to another new audience.
The Poppy Collection has enjoyed the dry, warm days and cool nights we have had this month and there are buds galore on the majority of the plants – it looks like June will be a real treat!!!
As ever,
Happy Gardening,
NEWSLETTER APRIL 2008
We did it! Gardening Leave is now a year old. To celebrate, we had a party in the garden and Michael, the first veteran who came to Gardening Leave on Day One, kindly agreed to travel from his home in Yorkshire and cut the birthday cake – a very special moment indeed!
The month started with our first AGM when we welcomed Commodore Elliott and John Dalrymple Hamilton as Trustees. We turned the mess room into a boardroom and spent a busy morning discussing plans for the future of Gardening Leave.
The Land Rover is going well and is now resplendent with her new signwriting which all helps to increase our profile – yet another indicator of our coming of age….
The next piece of the pilot project jigsaw is beginning to take shape. We know that Gardening Leave is good for the veterans because they tell us, and they vote with their feet by coming back. Now it is time for an evidence-based research project to be conducted which will set out to gather clinical evidence of the benefits of Gardening Leave to veterans.
Professor Jacqueline Atkinson of Glasgow University has kindly agreed to conduct the research and I am hopeful that once funding has been secured, we can start in early summer.
Combat Stress has two new Welfare Officers following the retirement of Major Eydes after many years of dedicated and much appreciated service. David and Jim paid a visit to Gardening Leave as part of their ‘Hollybush induction’ and I wish them well in their new positions and am glad that they can now spread the word about Gardening Leave among the veterans who they will be meeting as they travel around their respective sides of Scotland, east and west.
The Stovehouse now has an architect which is very exciting although I confess to some frustration that due to the dreaded Health & Safety requirements we still haven’t started putting up the scaffolding. A steering group is being formed which will oversee the work which in the long run can only be a good thing but….!
We are very busy in the garden; 1st and 2nd early potatoes and sweet peas are now in, tomatoes are growing on well and I hope our first lettuces, being hardened off in Dave’s wonderful coldframe which he started during his Christmas tour of Gardening Leave and has now completed, will be planted out this coming week.
The annual Hollybush House fete takes place on Saturday 7th June and we are growing lots of plants to sell there. Dave has made an awesome plant stand for us so we can keep all the cuttings and seedlings together – we are rapidly running out of room; a great problem to have!
When Les, a Gardening Leave veteran turned up at the Birthday Party he brought with him a fantastic donation of different varieties of poppy plants which has enabled us to fill every single bed in the Collection. I can’t wait to see them all in bloom and thank him very, very much for his generosity.
I am delighted that the merry band of volunteers is growing steadily – due to the One Show, Moira and the Birthday party. Their support makes me feel we have come of age – truly ‘no man is an island.’
