Gardens
Gerddi ‘Stiniog gardens
The Gardens are amongst the original provision run by the charity, created nearly 30 years ago to develop horticultural skills and a general interest in gardening for adults with a learning and/physical disability. It has been a story of changing tastes over the years culminating in a very sorry state at the end of Covid where it had become significantly overgrown.
With the help of Prosiect Pum Mil (a Welsh television programme similar to DIY SOS) and a massive amount of support from both the local community and businesses, we were able to completely renovate the gardens in 2½ days.
And the gardens have gone from strength to strength with new developments year on year. Our small team takes pride in their work and love to meet visitors during the day, so we’ve opened the gardens as a community space for the local area. We encourage visits from local clubs and groups and work closely with the local schools to develop a variety of different projects, including educational skills to encourage an interest in wildlife and the environment through practical tasks. The space is peaceful and offers a haven of quiet contemplation, or an opportunity to pull up a few weeds if you’d like! We run the gardens as organically as possible and compost our garden waste. And we’ve also started to take on a small amount of external work on behalf of the local Town Council. This has enabled us to employ an individual to undertake this work.
We can now offer a full sensory experience with a raised garden area full of sensory flowers with flowing water, behind which sits an original David Nash sculpture. The location was chosen by the Sculpturer himself to blend with the existing tree trunks as an insect sanctuary. Further back, we then have a small pond to encourage wildlife. Upon first introducing this idea, the individuals were excited to think they could be swimming and fishing there – we swiftly recognised a significant need to manage expectations … and they put on a brave face!
Over time, the pond area will be protected by natural planting, so we’ve already built a small accessible hide to observe the insects and wildlife the pond encourages.
But the story of how the hide came into existence is interesting in itself! A massive storm blew down a larch tree not 5 meters away from the pond. The pond and hide were a collaboration with Y Dref Werdd Community Enterprise, and they cut, planed and built the raw edged hut on site – a true recycling, repurposing and reusing project.
Check out our beehive area – we intend to expand this area to take up to 8 hives over time, with the intention of supplying honey to the Gwesty and to sell locally when the bees are safely established. They have created a significant interest amongst staff and individuals alike which is a fantastic and unexpected development.
But we’ve also got some hens, which the individuals look after with great care – never have you seen hens which are so coddled! And they repay us with eggs aplenty, which are again supplied to the Gwesty and sold locally. Our individuals love collecting eggs and this activity has encouraged a renewed interest in the gardens.
We continue to develop the gardens and are increasing our market garden area to grow even more produce, again to supply the Gwesty, sell locally but also to make our own pickles and preserves. We continue to run our wood turning projects as well as log and kindling bags for indoor and outdoor fire stoves and pits – a particular favourite amongst the area’s residents and local campsites.
But we also have plans to develop an orchard area on the slope between the Gwesty and the Gardens to further contribute to home-made preserves.
We haven’t forgotten our floral displays of established perennial planting – we also grow a wide variety of plants to sell to the local community. Our gardens are quite naturalised as this encourages the natural wildlife and are full of meandering pathways leading visitors all around the gardens. Whilst the gardens aren’t fully accessible from the Gwesty due to the steep incline, they can be accessed during the weekdays via our main entrance through the cemetery where we also have a small parking area. Many of our pathways are accessible by wheelchair and we are working hard to ensure that as much of the gardens as is safely possible is wheelchair accessible.
With all the investment in the gardens, much of which has been possible via grant funding, we’ve successfully applied for a variety of awards. Additionally, we’re particularly proud to have been accepted as part of the National Garden Scheme in 2026 and are working hard towards bringing our ideas into fruition. But the story of the gardens continues as we have new ideas to develop!
