Ian at Kavanagh Place leads the home’s new gardening hobby

Ian, who lives at Exemplar Health Care’s Kavanagh Place in Liverpool, has been busy recently. Every day, the resident, who used to be a full-time gardener, leads the home’s latest gardening project – a vegetable patch set aside from the lawns he lovingly mows and de-weeds.

Alongside around 10 other residents, Ian’s been planting seeds to grow carrots, spring onions, beetroot, courgettes, peppers, peas and lettuce.

Since planting the seeds two weeks ago, the residents plan to nurture their vegetables all the way to the table.  But for now, there’s more pressing issues at hand – like the need for netting to protect the vegetables that are starting to sprout.

“Gardening makes me feel relaxed and happy,” says Ian, who recently enjoyed showing the garden to his family in a socially-distanced outdoor visit.

“I love all parts of gardening, especially cutting the grass and keeping it neat,” he adds. “It looks that good now.”

Kavanagh Place’s Activities Team have helped. After asking the residents which vegetables they wanted, the Team bought seed, soil and wood chips.

"When Ian’s out in the garden, he's very content,” says Scott Davis, an Activities Coordinator at Kavanagh Place. “It definitely lifts his mood.”

The two regularly talk about the garden’s progress over a morning coffee together.

“You can see when he's out there that he's in his own zone, and he's super-focused,” Scott adds.

Ian’s very keen to see the vegetables grow – so watch this space for when he and other residents get to pick them!