A Day in the Life of a Volunteer Hospice Gardener

Hello, I'm Martin and I'm the lead garden volunteer at St Cuthbert's Hospice. I'm going to show you what being a garden volunteer at the hospice is like.

I start off the day by checking the greenhouse to see if anything needs watering. We all arrive at different times in the morning, We have a list to check which jobs need doing and what the priority is for the day. 

You might need to do some weeding or turn the compost over, deadhead or prune. Or we might have a bigger job like digging out the bed or clearing annuals that have gone over or my favourite, making sure all the plants in the greenhouse are in first class order.

We use these for wall beds spots around the grounds and also sell to help raise money for the hospice.

We have a National Garden Scheme open day on the 27th of July, so we want the gardens to look as good as possible for that. People will visit the hospice garden from the local area to see what an amazing place it is for patients and their families and raise money for good causes like Hospice UK.

We spend the day working together on the gardens, doing whatever we need to do, to help make sure it's maintained and looking lovely.

Another quick stop for a coffee, we've got to keep our strength up!

I've always been a king gardener but haven't had any training. I've learned things from my dad. We all share tips and advice with each other on what to do.

I find being a volunteer in the gardens at St Cuthbert's Hospice really great. It's therapeutic and helps calm my mind and gets me out in the fresh air, keeping me fit and active. I also like that I can do as much or as little as I need to do, to work with my schedule.

It's quite busy being retired, you know!

The gardens are used by patients here and their families and our staff too, to connect with nature and to get some peace and respite from their day-to-day lives. Out here you can just be and forget about your problems for a while.

I'd say that all hospice gardens are gardens of compassion and we're really excited about getting Hospice UK's Garden of Compassion after the Chelsea Flower Show this summer. Lots of hard work for us volunteer gardeners of course but we don't mind that - it's going to look amazing.

So the work is done for the day. We all return our tools back to the store, maybe have another cup of tea and then off we go.

If there's anyone out there who's got green fingers and is looking for something to do for their free time, I'd highly recommend getting in touch with their local hospice and seeing if they might be able to help out in their garden.

I love it, it's changed my life and it'll change others', too.