'Magical' garden opens for hospice patients

The award winning Fontana Tranquillity Garden opens today at Mount Edgcumbe Hospice.

Author: Chris TatePublished 23rd Jun 2024

Cornwall Hospice Care are formally opening a "magical" garden for patients.

The Fontana Tranquillity Garden was first designed by Derek Bishop and Kim Parish to be showcased at last year's BBC Gardeners' World Live event.

It won a Silver Merit and has since been brought back to Cornwall and redesigned for Mount Edgcumbe Hospice in St Austell.

“We wanted the garden to have a purpose,” says Derek who owns the beautiful Fontana Garden at Trenython on the outskirts of Tywardreath. “We had the idea of donating it to the hospice where it will now provide a place to find peace, comfort and calm for patients, their carers, families and friends, the staff and volunteers.”

Lisa Shephard is Cornwall Hospice Care’s Clinical Lead; "We're extremely humbled by Derek Bishop's generous donation of the garden to our hospice where it offers a wonderful outdoor space for everyone from our patients and their carers, families and friends to our own staff and volunteers. It’s overlooked by four of our hospice rooms and our patient conservatory, benefitting patients who can either enjoy the view of it or go outside and experience it at first hand. It’s well thought out design has created very accessible areas and that means we can take patients out in their beds and in wheelchairs."