This week sees Cooper-Hayes Garden Design undertaking a lovely little project to help some friends of mine who have had a lot to deal with over the past two years create a fantastic new garden for their young family.
Lewis North, my terrifically talented hair stylist (he has to be talented to make my hair look good!), and his wife Sonia approached me to help them turn their unloved and overgrown back garden into something ultra-low maintenance and manageable. For the past few years, Lewis and Sonia have spent countless days and weeks in and out of hospital caring for their beautiful daughter Lilly, who at the age of two, was diagnosed with Wilms’ Tumour, an aggressive cancer of the kidneys. Lilly is winning her battle with the disease and is full of beans spending every waking moment playing with her new best friend Batman the dog, but with the arrival of their new baby, the couple have had neither the time nor energy to get to grips with their garden and it has got on top of them and is no fun for them all to be out in.
They were hoping they could initially just gravel or bark over the entire 9m x 5m garden to just take all the work out of managing the garden, but employing a garden designer to undertake this project was unnecessary and they wouldn’t have got anything particularly great for their budget. Having initially suggested I couldn’t really help them, I came away from visiting the garden with the seed of an idea in my head: to pull together some help and goodwill from my business, landscaping and horticultural connections to do a ‘Ground Force’ style makeover in the space of a day or two, and create a garden that I hope will far exceed their expectations.
And so my little initiative began to take shape. Lewis and Sonia were thrilled at the idea I put forward and I was pleased to find that their initial desire for something rather sterile was replaced by an enthusiasm to make their garden a proper outdoor space with colour and life. I asked Lilly what she would like in her garden to be able to have more fun in it, and she said butterflies. It was that simple, and I have to say the best answer a little girl could have given me. It makes my goal easier – to introduce some plants that will draw the wildlife in and put life back into the space. She also loves pink. I think I can connect with my girly side somehow!
So I have assembled a small team of helpers. The excellent David Greaves of David Greaves Landscaping has agreed to give all his labour for free. Tony Harding of Seasoned Garden Designs is helping with the build and planting. I can’t tell you how much their support means to me. I am giving my time freely for designing and project managing and rolling up my sleeves to do all the odd jobs needed to help Lewis, Sonia and the kids can enjoy their garden, as they put the nightmare of the past few years behind them and spend some quality time in their own home being a family.
Thanks also to Steve Chadwick of Martin & Co Lettings Agents in Hinckley, and Priscilla Morris of Loud and Clear Voice Coaching for offering to buy something special for the garden. Their generosity means I can go and find a couple of lovely specimen trees and plants to attract the wildlife that Lilly is so desperate to see!
So on June 4th and 5th it will be all hands on deck, painting fences, digging, levelling, paving and planting to see just what can be achieved with a modest materials budget, some elbow grease and lot of kindness and generosity. I hope it will be a really fun and rewarding experience for all of us. I am looking for any extra offers of help to paint fences and prepare soil and plant the garden up (or make cake!). If you think you can spare an hour or two on either day, your help will be massively appreciated!
I look forward to sharing some photos of the finished garden once it is all done.
