Renewal and well-being for the community

The Guernsey Botanical Trust was formed in 2006 for the express purpose of reclaiming and restoring Saumarez Park’s Victorian walled kitchen garden as a charitable and voluntary project.

The garden had been part of the de Saumarez family’s private estate, which was acquired by the States of Guernsey following the death of the fourth Lord de Saumarez in 1937. While the park itself has been substantially used for public purposes, the walled garden fell into a state of disuse and disrepair over the years.

In 2006 dedicated volunteers began work to clear the site and restore it to a working garden in keeping with a Victorian ethos. The first major capital projects were the building of replica greenhouses, the Lemon House (2010), the Orchard House (2012) and the Vine House (2014). These adjoining greenhouses adorn the North wall of the garden and provide an impressive 170′ run of South-facing glass houses.

The "Gatehouse and Learning Centre" is the last piece of the project. It will house the education/visitor centre, the garden shop ("La Choppe"), an administration area and a crew room. Once complete it will provide a facility to support the range of education programmes developed over recent years and to further enhance them to ensure they are fully inclusive to all members of the community who wish to access them. With just over half the required funds raised, through kind donations and matched funding, it was decided to adopt a phased approach to the build and the first of these two phases began in February 2020, before work was rudely interrupted at the end of March! Phase one will provide an air and water tight building. Phase two will cover the internal work to fully complete the build; for this the charity is working to raise £90,000.

In order to follow the principles of the Victorian ethos, the plants grown in the garden all date back to that period (1837-1901 ). Some of the plants are very rare and a great deal of effort has gone into researching, tracing and sourcing the seeds from many countries around the globe. These plants have been successfully reintroduced to the garden . Each year seeds are gathered and either replanted for the following season or stored for future use, thereby sustaining the islands horticultural heritage and building an important archive.

The Guernsey Botanical Trust has developed a three phased education programme, with the aim of offering opportunities that will support either academic or more vocational learning across all key stages of education. These programmes are designed to encourage all areas of the community to visit and utilise the gardens in order to learn valuable life skills and, from the charity’s perspective, to encourage those individuals who find they enjoy the experience the gardens provide, to become members and volunteers who will take an even greater role in the gardens and associated projects.

Following on from the educational programmes, the intention is to expand them further to enable medical practitioners and organisations that support mental health and well-being programmes, to utilise the gardens. There is an ever-increasing wealth of evidence showing how important gardens and plants are for our physical, mental, and social well-being and once the Gatehouse is complete, the Guernsey Botanical Trust will be able to offer the Victorian Walled Kitchen Garden as a facility for such projects.

For more details on how gardening can help peoples’ well-being please take a look at the Royal Horticultural Society "RHS" YouTube videos linked to the below images: