2023 has been a great year for me, and loads has happened at the hospice. We finally managed to get the gazebo erected. It has been really well received and is regularly used.

We then had the Tatton Flower Show, which was totally amazing! It took me and my volunteers two whole days to plant up our 4m x 1.5m flower bed. In total there were well over 120 plants crammed into it. We were very pleased with the results! A big thank you to Lee Burkhill (the Ninja Gardener) for helping to design it and the four other gardens in BBC NW Tonight’s Community Garden.

Within 15 minutes of the plants arriving on site, bees started to appear in the search for nectar, and butterflies and moths weren’t long behind. During the week I was very excited to see a ‘Silver Y moth’.

As well as wildlife, we also had the public, who were equally great! At least two of us stayed by the garden each day chatting to visitors. We talked about the experience of being at Tatton, the garden we had planted up and lots about the hospice movement. People expressed their gratitude towards hospices, be it Wigan and Leigh, or their local one. It felt very affirming and inspired me to keep focussed on maintaining and improving the gardens.

The weather wasn’t brilliant, but could have been much worse. We had only had one really wet day during the show!

At the end of the show, we spent a day dismantling the garden and taking it back to the hospice where we recreated it. The results are lovely.

On the first day of the show, BBC NW Tonight broadcast their evening news programme from the garden. The public had all left but we were able to stay behind to watch, which was very interesting!

On the back of the Tatton Flower Show, BBC NW Tonight have commissioned a whole series of features on the hospice, in fact they are following Wigan and Leigh Hospice every month, for 12 months. So far they have looked at the financial situation that hospices find themselves in (not good – this year W+L Hospice is running at a £1m deficit), the ‘Hospice in Your Home’ team (fantastic) and part of their Christmas show was filmed at out ‘Light For a Life’ ceremony. This year we have had a 35ft tree at the front of the hospice and 93 trees at the back. They look gorgeous, especially when frosty.

Sadly the Rainbow Bridge has had to be taken down as it was getting very rotten and unsafe. In its palce we have a new bridge that has been kindly donated by a local business. It is quite spectacular (large!) and includes a seating area. At the moment it is just grey in colour, but when we get some warmer weather I hope to get it painted in rainbow colours again. When I do I will take some photos of it to share with you.

The other highlight of the year was the result of our entry into NW in Bloom. For the fifth year in a row we were given the highest award… outstanding! We also received the ‘Best Hospice Gardens in the NW Award’. Again, this was very affirming in all we do in the gardens and a good motivator for continuing. I am looking forward to seeing what 2024 brings!

I hope that you are well and have had a good year in your garden. I wish you a very Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for 2024. If you ever want to visit the hospice gardens, you would be more than welcome! (just message me)

All the best, JIM x