THERE are no gardening mistakes, only experiments, says a Bow doctor who is behind setting up a garden for anyone and everyone to spend time in or help with the big or little jobs that always need doing. 

The sign on the gate says it is the Growing Well Garden, growing well it certainly is, always a work in progress, and it would seem to be helping people grow as well. 

For eons people have known that getting outdoors can improve the outlook on life for nearly everyone, Vitamin G, the green effect, and at Bow there is a big dose right beside the doctors surgery.

Dr Susan Taheri is the force behind it and on Saturday, July 8, the open afternoon brought a number of visitors to see what is being done there and how, since it began last year. 

It is open for people to go and look or help at the drop-in open garden sessions which run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 12 noon, when one of the volunteer garden hosts is there to greet visitors. Over time, more volunteer hosts would mean the garden could be open more often.

“It would be nice to have a number of people connected with the garden, like our current hosts Louise and Emma who heard about us and came to help.  They are both passionate about the ways in which gardening can help our health and wellbeing. People can feel free to come and just sit or pick up a trowel,” said Susan. 

“We’ve had so much help getting the garden to where it is. The practice has kindly allowed us use of its land and the Primary Care Network of local GP surgeries provided some initial funding to help us get underway. Our friend Stuart Brealy has helped enormously with lots of the construction jobs like putting the beds together. His next challenge is to build us a central open sided structure - in my head it’s a sort of bandstand with a ‘green’ roof,” she added.

“We had a grant from the National Garden Scheme (the Yellow Book), through its Community Garden Award which has paid for our polytunnel from Ferryman’s just down the road from here. Gordon could not have been more helpful.”

For the past weeks the lawn has been taken over by a regular Tai Chi class run by Kate at Forest Chi in Okehampton with the polytunnel providing a perfect wet weather alternative. 

The Cabin Company based near Okehampton helped with timber offcuts from their sawmill which has made the edges for the beds.

Susan added: “We have used a no-dig method to create the beds using lorry loads of green waste compost supplied by Coastal UK just outside Exeter.  We’ve lined the base of the beds with cardboard to cover the grass, piled the compost on top and then planted into that.  So far it’s working well.

“Thanks to our farming neighbour, Viv Steer, we have bore hole water piped into a corner of the garden and a ready supply of manure.  The biggest expense has been putting up a rabbit proof fence. We also still have a fruit cage to assemble. 

“This is a green social prescribing Project which uses the intervention of gardening and time outside in nature to help people’s physical and mental health. 

“As a doctor I have also often wondered how it would be if I met my patients in a garden rather than a consulting room.

“This isn’t a show garden but it is a real garden.” 

The local social prescribing and wellbeing team will also refer and signpost people to the garden and, over time, the hope is to run more activities there alongside the drop-in sessions. 

Growing Well Garden is open to anyone registered at one of the local GP surgeries, not just at Bow, and people can find out more through the garden’s Facebook page or by email: [email protected] .