Children’s sensory gardens are a must in our hectic society of today. They are essential for schools and hospices as a means to educate and stimulate, so why do schools have to beg and borrow for funds?

It’s becoming more and more common for schools and hospices to require an area of relaxation for their children, but are fighting against crippling funding in all areas and therefore many fail to see the idea emerge.

The normal process is for a school to run its own garden project amongst the children, this is great but lacks professional input to really make the idea a real long lasting success. Hospices struggle to raise the funds, all would love a space for the children to play and relax, but many have to raise the funds themselves through sponsors, or can approach organisations for funding. This is time consuming and some fail or have to wait for the funding, which could be years.  

Sensory garden designer, Anthony Bloomfield has experienced the problems of children’s hospice sensory garden funding, in the gardens he has designed and built. He says ‘It’s really, really frustrating, you can see the benefits a garden could bring to the children, but the hospice staff struggle to generate the funds to make this a reality. In a perfect world, hospices would have an endless pot from the Government to spend on essentials, the children could then experience the beauty of a sensory garden without the struggle to give them what they really deserve''.

Budget is a major concern of the majority of clients and rightly so, but why in today’s age of gross wages for premier league footballers, MPs expenses and greed amongst the many, do we have to have a society and system that is set up to make the well being and happiness of our children in schools, a fight for survival.

Anthony Bloomfield is dedicated to play a small part in helping schools and sensory gardens nationwide. He is in the planning stages of generating a website that will hopefully be a major central hub, for free advice for any school or hospice who are thinking of creating a garden. There will be many links to funding, professional landscapers, materials, fun accessories for the garden etc, etc. He believes it will be innovative and will help many organisations develop their ideas better. He also hopes it will generate lots of interest with local businesses and councils. It is hoped many school and hospices will know about this service should they wish to start a sensory garden or a simple vegetable plot for the children.

If you have any comments on this article or have any suggestions please email Anthony Bloomfield at http://www.bloomfieldgardendesign.com or email anthony@bloomfieldgardendesign.com 

Please visit http://www.claire-house.org.uk/             

http://www.leeming-raf.n-yorks.sch.uk/

http://www.st-peters.york.sch.uk/st-peters/

http://ellesmere-family-centre.co.uk/