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Next, we have Alison and Vicky from the R HS team who we have to thank for our lovely new Garden at Colchester. Um For those of you from Ipswich. If you're here today, please do come and visit it. They're going to do some tours at lunch time, but I'm just going to hand over to them um to talk if anyone that online has any questions from the day do post them in the chats and we'll try and get around to them at lunch time for you. Ok. Mhm. Um Do you need your problem? Just have the main side? You just, yeah, just click there. Hi, good afternoon, everyone. My name is sharing and this is Allison with from the Royal Horticultural Society and we're gonna talk to you today about the culture wellbeing garden. Um So we're both within the National Community Programs team at the R HS working on the gardening for a healthier nation program. So I just want to take you back and just to have a thing kind of stop. And do you remember when you first grew a plant or sowed some seeds? Do you remember when those little green bits of seed or plant just kept poking through the soil. It might have been at school. It might have been with your grandparents or at home or do you remember when you grew and harvested the first crops of the year or made friends with the wildlife in the garden, friendly robin or a worm or had a chat with strangers, friends or family in the garden. And do you remember planting bulbs last year? And even if you didn't, have you been feeling the first signs of spring pushing through the dark winter out of the way in anticipation of what is to come? And if you did on recently, have you felt a sense of achievement and satisfaction at the end of the day in anticipation that a beautiful garden is going to burst into life in just a few months or weeks or days full of color, smell and flavor. And even if it didn't work out particularly well, I bet you still carried on planting, growing and experimenting because it made you feel good, feel well and feel optimistic. And how did you feel if you made environmentally sustainable choices in your garden, perhaps a new plant to encourage wildlife to thrive for water adaptation initiatives. And we know that positive psychology and visible sustainability relate to wellbeing and inspire increased action towards sustainable practices. And that is the power and joy of gardening. So today, Ali and I will explore how gardening principles can enrich our lives, positively impact NHS communities, bringing those feelings of feeling better to anyone who visits gardens or any gardening practice in a wellbeing garden. We'll delve into the wellbeing garden here at Colchester Hospital, highlighting its role in shifting the focus from treatment to prevention and emphasizing social and environmental activities and sustainability initiatives in the garden. So the Colchester Hospital Wellbeing Garden is located at the entrance between the cancer wellbeing center and the main entrance to the hospital. The garden offers sustainable inclusive and a peaceful environment for visitors, staff and volunteers. It was designed by Adam Frost and it showcases how nature based solutions can tackle social and environmental challenges. Adam also designed our first garden at University Hospital Lewisham and after a three year engagement program with the R HS, an evaluation highlighted the importance of wellbeing gardens. These green spaces reduce stress, improve mental wellbeing and boost staff morale and provide physical health benefits. With over 70% of staff reported improved mental health. Citing the wellbeing garden is crucial for decompression and recharge. Additionally, 81% of university hospital staff noted a positive impact on workplace morale. A key indicator to explore and response staff retention across the NHS. So when we started the Garden at Colchester, we embarked on a co-production project with the trust and with the charity and consultations with representative garden users such as staff, volunteers, visitors and patients. So thank you too. Thank. So the garden was built by a landscaping firm, but it was definitely planted by um members of the public staff from the hospital and um volunteers from R HS Gardens, R HS staff and a volunteer gardening club that we started. Um Some of the sponsors also came along, which was great. We had a young um staff of Starbucks um who did a lot of planting which was fun. The style of the planting is very sustainable. Colchester is one of the driest parts of the UK. With our rainfall being equivalent, our rainfall being equivalent to um the same rain that falls in Jerusalem. So it's really important to plant things that are adapted to the dry conditions. Otherwise it will be a drain on resources. So plants chosen are typically um evergreen with small aromatic leaves, sometimes hairy, sometimes silver. So we've got some examples here on the left. We've got tea tree which is an evergreen shrub from New Zealand has small aromatic dark leaves um from where the essential oil tea tree comes from. We've also got an example of um a sage, a Balkan sage in the middle, which has uh similar gray leaves and purple flowers in the summer. And traditionally, it was is used as um to stop bleeding if the plants, if we're planting something we always think of, can it support pollinators as well? Because gardens play a crucial role in providing habitats for our wildlife. So every plant has to earn its keep and offer pollen to the pollinators. So we have examples here. We have um Russian olive or Imus Angustifolia, a drought resistant shrub with beautiful um scented flowers in the summer, lesser calamine that literally floured, floured all summer right through to the frosts. Um And it's used in Corsica to flavor goat's cheese and then verbena, which you might be more familiar with which flowers all summer long. The trees that we've planted are really important to provide shade. And that can be a way of mitigating some of the temperature rises that climate change will bring. So trees provide a cool space and they also intercept heavy rainfall so they help reduce localized flooding. We have three beautiful wild strawberry trees and evergreen tree that's as tough as all boots survived the last ice age and it was resistant to drought cold and even fire. It survived in Ireland and is native across the Mediterranean being the national flower of Italy with its striking white flowers, red strawberry fruits resembling the flag. The nectar of its flows are rich in the active ingredient that protects bees from parasites. We have the showy crepe myrtle again, um can cope with the hot summers, has beautiful peeling gray bark and beautiful pink flowers all summer long. And the honey locust native to North and Central America which colonizes riverbeds and areas of wet and dry conditions. And again, that's something that climate change is bringing um where there's periods of intensive rain and then dry conditions. It's it's a member of the pea family and produces large pea pods that are traditionally eaten by native Americans for it, sweet taste, hence its honey name. And then it's flowers in the spring and has delicate ferning foliage that gives a lovely dappled shade, it turns yellow in the autumn. So all trees have been chosen for their drought tolerance. But when you plant anything, especially trees in the first three years, you really have to look after them. So we're doing this with using these smart watering um water bags that allows us to fill them with water. The water slowly perates over eight hours. We also heavily mulch all our beds and this traps in moisture and stops weeds from.