Local firm creates Dementia Friendly Garden for Bloom
BALTINGLASS COMPANY’S DESIGN TO BE A FIRST FOR BLOOM FESTIVAL
A WICKLOW garden design and building maintenance company, which is exhibiting for the first time at this year’s Bloom Festival in Dublin, is also the first company to exhibit a dementia friendly garden there.
Clive James of Newtown Saunders Ltd, based in Baltinglass, which has been in business for nearly 15 years, came up with the idea for a dementia-friendly garden following a chance meeting with a professor from Trinity College who was researching dwellings and houses for people with dementia.
A dementia garden has special components that make it simple, calm and accessible with soothing colours; that promote the sense of smell, touch and noise; and which make the garden visibly accessible and viewable from the carer’s point of view.
‘With plants and components in the garden we are trying to stimulate memory because the short term memory of people with dementia is very poor, but their long-term memory is quite good,’ Clive told the Wicklow People.
‘So we try and include older plants such as lavender and marigold plants to help their long-term memory,’ he said.
‘I then approached Enterprise Ireland and received funding for research into making better use of outdoor spaces for people with dementia,’ he said.
TrinityHaus at Trinity College carried out the research and at the end of that, further research was conducted to develop products and components to go into the gardens.
‘We built a prototype garden in the grounds of St Claire’s Nursing Home in Glasnevin about a year-and-a-half ago and at that stage another agency, Sonas APC, became involved,’ Clive said.
Sonas APC is a training agency to promote activities and the well being of care home residents and provide better training for care home workers on how to look after their residents.
‘We then came up with the idea to showcase the dementia garden at Bloom to help increase its profile and also so that we can encourage such gardens to be included in everyone’s back garden,’ he said.
Clive’s company has also developed a number of components specifically suited for dementia gardens and gardens accessible to people with limited mobility.
‘One of the main components is a wheelchair accessible planter which we manufacture out of recycled plastic. People can sit comfortably on these while planting plants.’
Another component is a covered seating area or transition space where someone can sit and rest as they walk around a garden. The company is also due to launch a wheelchair ac- cessible tool house/glasshouse type structure with a vertical planter.
‘We are really looking forward and excited about doing Bloom and Sonas and TrinityHaus will be involved in the project too. It’s exciting as it’s the first time we are exhibiting at the festival and the first dementia garden to be exhibited,’ he said.