Steps to building a fabulous facility garden space

Every aged care home has some form of garden and these outdoor spaces can add happiness, calm and a sense of purpose to residents’ lives.

The humble garden can be an important part of health and wellbeing for aged care residents, so taking steps to develop the most fabulous garden spaces is time well spent.

Much of the success of a garden space will come from the planning that goes into it, but there are also factors you can discuss with landscapers and other contractors to lift the overall outcome.

This article walks you through the steps of creating a garden space that can be enjoyed by all and will work well for your facility.

Deciding on features

The first step in the planning of your garden is to consider who will be using it so that you can determine what features will suit them.

The mobility and care needs of the residents are an important consideration because you want them to be able to get the most out of the space.

For example, residents in a dementia wing might benefit more from a garden that has lots of sensory elements and is easy to navigate. Whereas, wheelchair users will need wide, flat paths to be able to access the garden.

Some of the most important elements of a facility garden include:

• Shade
• Benches or seats
• A variety of plants
• Paths
• Features residents can engage in or be stimulated by – whether it’s the look, smell, texture or physical activity that engages them

It might help with the garden design to ask residents what they would like to see included. Would they like a theme to the plants, such as a tropical garden? Would they like a water feature or garden statues? Is it important to have a shaded feature like a rotunda?

Consider the purpose of the garden as well, for example is it important to have residents involved in cultivating the plants to improve their wellbeing?

The former Alzheimers Australia (which merged with Dementia Australia) has suggested there are also features that can be included to create specific therapeutic benefits for aged care residents, including:

• Plants that stimulate all five senses and are chosen for their scent, texture, colour and edibility
• Quiet spaces for meditation
• Tools used by professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists or psychologists in therapy, for example outdoor gym equipment
• Visual cues, such as signs, that can be used by residents with dementia to navigate the garden more confidently on their own
• Bird feeders and bird baths for interaction with nature
• Features that invite residents to complete home-like chores, such as posting a letter or sweeping leaves from the paths

Accessibility

Recently, aged care provider Lifeview was awarded the 2022 InnovAGEING Award for Enhancing Consumer Experience for its Planting with Purpose program. 

The program is a collaboration between residents, chefs and gardeners at the provider’s facilities, who together grow fresh produce for residents’ meals. The response from residents involved in the program has been hugely positive, with staff noticing improvements in the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of residents.

Lifeview Head Gardener Daniel de Sachau said the award winning gardening program had features which made it accessible and usable for everyone, which was one of the top considerations for design features.

“You need good access for residents to walk around and look at different garden beds with different coloured flowers and native plants and ornamentals,” Mr de Sachau said.

“You also need it to be useable, so a space that people will want to go out in and spend some time, so not just a lawn area but having a good balance of plants around it as well and things that will draw people out there.

“Usually we make sure nothing ends in a dead end, so the path feeds itself back around the garden and encourages them to go on a good walk around the whole garden, not just go out the door, look at something and go back in.”

If you have gardens where residents will be working, for example, growing vegetables, weeding and tending plants, these also need to be accessible.

Lifeview uses raised garden beds, some on wheels to move them around, as well as some at a height that a person in a wheelchair can sit underneath to reach the whole garden bed.

Looks vs productivity

Should you have a garden that is purely decorative or one that produces food for use in the facility’s kitchen?

The answer is both!

A garden that is established for looks is just as important as a produce garden as they both offer different options for residents.

Owner of landscaping business Great Spaces, Peter O’Neill, said in his experience working with aged care facilities it is good to have a destination in a garden, such as a bench overlooking an eye-catching flower bed, where residents can go to enjoy the aesthetic.

But he said the produce side of a garden adds another level of enjoyment for residents as it is an opportunity for more engagement in gardening and outdoor activities.

“Residents get a lot of pleasure out of producing the food and I think the generations that are in facilities now are probably more gardeners than we are, so they appreciate that,” he said.

Some facilities keep these two types of gardens separate – with a dedicated area for food production and gardens in other areas that are designed only to be attractive.

Mr de Sachau said Lifeview has a combination of gardens across its facilities.

“We’ll have dedicated gardens where we grow vegetables and things but even in the normal parts of the gardens we’ll grow herbs that get used daily, like rosemary, and even spots where I’ve replanted trees we’ve put apple trees and stone fruit in,” he said.

“I like the gardens to be productive, not just nice to look at, so even where we grow flowers a lot of the time residents will pick them to go on the dining tables.”

Consultation over what the residents, grounds staff and kitchen staff would like their gardens to look like will help you to plan the right mix of looks and productivity.

The brief

When you know what you want to have in your garden and the budget for the project, you will need to put together a brief for any contractors that will be undertaking the work.

The brief should include:

• Details of the garden space, including size and other factors such as whether the project will re-develop an existing garden or be starting from scratch
• Budget
• Timeframe 
• Vision of what you want to achieve
• Types of residents that will be using the garden

Mr O’Neill said a good brief will also have design plans to provide to potential contractors, ensuring you can accurately compare quotes to get the best person for the job.

“Get a design done and then two or three companies can price off the design, because then it’s comparing apples with apples rather than everyone having their different ideas,” he said.

You can still make changes to the design if they are needed after you receive feedback from contractors, just make sure you are aware of any adjustment to the quote those changes might cause.

Engaging contractors

Once you have collected a few quotes for the garden project and selected the contractors that will carry out the work, make sure you confirm a price in writing that is within your budget, so that you can be confident in how the garden will turn out.

There are also a few factors you can discuss with contractors to improve the outcome of your garden, including:

• Asking for low maintenance plants so the workload is manageable for you groundskeeping team
• Ensuring there is a good amount of greenery and shade so the garden is enjoyable in summer
• Balancing the labour and costs of ongoing garden maintenance with what you want to achieve

Mr de Sachau said the biggest issue he has found with any garden residents are involved in cultivating, is that watering can be inconsistent, particularly if the weather is hot.

He recommends working with contractors to install a good quality irrigation system to ensure plants always have enough to drink.

If you are putting in a section of garden that residents will be involved in planting or maintaining, you can also consult with your landscaper on using plants in this space that your residents will like to work with.

This can be based on what residents have said they used to have in their own gardens, as well as what will grow well in the facility’s climate and require less ongoing maintenance.