This is a two-day event which will be run at the following times:
- 7th September 2021 from 1.00pm - 4.15pm
- 9th September 2021 from 1.00pm - 4.15pm
Please note that this event will be recorded and will be made available to delegates after the event. For more information on recording and privacy please click here. Once you have booked onto the event an invitation to the Zoom meeting will be sent 24 hours before the meeting commences with instructions on how to log on.
Course Tutor: Olivia Kirk
Olivia specialises in designing healing gardens. She has worked throughout the UK with many hospices designing the landscapes around new-build and hospice extensions firstly as a director of KKE Architects which she founded with her husband in 2005 and more recently with her own garden design practice, Olivia Kirk Gardens based in Herefordshire. She regularly tutors for The London College of Garden Design.
Olivia is recognised as one of the UK experts for planting low allergen gardens in the public domain, building on the success of her low allergen garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2010 which went on to be replanted outside the new National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit. Her low allergy gardens have featured in many publications, most recently in the RHS ‘Your Wellbeing Garden’ published by DK this year.
She has designed many show gardens including her gold medal winning garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show for Worcester Bosch ‘The Power of Nature’ which explored ways in which green technology can be incorporated into our gardens for both our benefits and for the future of our planet.
Course Overview:
CPD – 1 Designing Healing and Therapeutic Gardens
CPD – 2 Understanding and using Low Allergen Planting Design
These 2 half-day lecture courses for garden designers will focus on the nuts and bolts of designing gardens within a variety of caring environments. These are specialist gardens generally providing respite from a clinical world – a restless world with call bells buzzing, phones ringing and busy staff. These gardens will not always provide a cure for the people who use them but the therapeutic benefits will be enormous to patients, their families and the staff who care for them.
In putting together these courses I have drawn from my experience in designing gardens for many hospices throughout the UK together with dementia gardens, therapy gardens and my work with St John’s in Lichfield which is one of the many historic alms-houses providing sheltered accommodation for older people with neighbourly support and care. There will be plenty of time made available for questions and discussion throughout the lecture sessions.
Day 1 will cover topics that will enable you to:
- Understand the overall concept of healing gardens within a variety of caring environments
- Discover what a healing garden is and the part it plays in patient care
- Assess who you are designing for and how different stakeholders use the gardens
- Study overall design considerations for specific types of therapy/healing gardens
- Select appropriate planting for healing gardens with an introduction to the Importance of low allergen planting
Day 2 will provide an in-depth understanding of low allergen plants and planting:
- Exploring why allergies are now so prevalent
- Looking at which plants to avoid and why
- Looking at the best structural planting options to give a visually pleasing backbone to your low allergen garden
- Discussing creative planting combinations including alternatives to the prairie style of planting design
- Exploring the wildlife that benefits from the low allergen planting and discussing how the presence of wildlife in the garden works for us and our wellbeing