Designer Emily Grayshaw, Karen Blight of the community garden, designer Jude Yeo and Dr Karen Jones at the community garden
More than 1000 plants from an acclaimed Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) show garden have found a permanent home at Farncombe Community Garden near Godalming, creating a lasting legacy benefitting local residents, schools, community groups and patients referred through social prescribing.
The ‘plants for purpose’, all originally part of the Feature Garden, RHS Healer’s Hollow show garden (pictured above), designed by Emily Grayshaw and Jude Yeo of Godalming-based Inspired Earth Design for this summer’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, have been permanently relocated to Farncombe. In their new home, they will expand opportunities for people to connect with nature for their physical and mental wellbeing.
Rooted in the rich traditions of herbal medicine dating back hundreds of years, RHS Healer’s Hollow explored the benefits of plants for modern-day healing and beauty, all carefully selected for aiding skin, digestion and women’s health.
All the herbaceous plants from the show garden’s medicinal beds, together with its woodland species, have now been rehomed. These plantings are thriving in Farncombe’s sensory and cutting gardens as well as adding to the woodland areas, creating spaces that encourage relaxation, recovery and community connection.
Emily Grayshaw and Jude Yeo , of Inspired Earth Design, said: “We have been involved with Farncombe Community Garden for several years and were completely inspired by its ethos. The link to our RHS Feature Garden was strengthened by our shared commitment to plants with medicinal purposes, and with the garden led by GPs passionate about holistic health care, we knew this would be the ideal home for the plants. A big thank you to the RHS for this generous gift.”
Farncombe Community Garden was founded by local GPs to encourage “growing community wellbeing”. Today it is used by a wide range of people – from patients prescribed gardening to complement modern medicine, to school groups, the neighbouring care home and residents who simply want to enjoy time outdoors. The garden also runs three weekly open sessions where anyone can drop in to help, learn, or connect with nature.
The arrival of the RHS Healer’s Hollow plants has not only transformed the space but also underlined its ethos of using ‘plants with purpose’ to benefit everyday health. The new additions were officially celebrated at a special thank you event in the garden where visitors heard from:
- Designers Emily Grayshaw and Jude Yeo (Inspired Earth Design) – on the journey of the plants from RHS Hampton Court to Farncombe.
- Dr Karen Jones and designer Karen Blight (Farncombe Community Garden) – on the purpose and benefits of the space.
- Kayleigh Sinclair, “The Historical Herbologist” – on plants for purpose, medicinal plants and the deep human connection to them.
Dr Karen Jones from the Farncombe Community Garden team, said: “The arrival of over 1000 plants has transformed our sensory, cutting and woodland areas, enabling us to expand the support we can offer to the local community.”
