Past Fundraising

On Thursday the 10th June 2004 we visited St. Peter's Hospital in Chertsey and with some of the money raised so far by Georgie's Fund we replanted the gardens of Oak Day Care children's ward and Little Oaks Children's oncology ward. Our Georgie spent time in Little Oaks as and so it was very special for us to be able to give something back in appreciation of the care that they had given to George.

We arrived at 9.30am and we were greeted by June Clark the Hospital Play Services Co-ordinator who looked after us well throughout the day supplying us with cups of tea. We first started on Oak Ward's garden it was a bit of a sorry site! There were hardly any plants left and the existing gravel path's membrane was showing through. We started by digging over the garden removing any weeds, re-burying the membrane, emptying existing pots and refilling them with compost. There were 5 of us in the morning, Tania, Jackie, Linda and her son Jack, and Sally. Half way through the morning we were joined by Abbie and Peri.

Once we had dug over the garden we were ready to place the plants! We scattered the plants around the garden still in their pots and when we were satisfied with the positioning the planting began! We had, bamboos, hostas, half a dozen different types of lavender, lavetera, poppies, buddlea and ornamental grasses to name a few!

Within no time the garden began to take shape, by the afternoon apart from the sweeping up we had finished and it was time to move onto Little Oak's ward. By now we were all beginning to feel a bit tired so we were thrilled when we were joined by Jo, Jackie D with her sons George and Jack, and Maria.

After a quick rest for lunch we got busy with our second garden of the day. Although Little Oak's garden had more established plants, the membrane that had been laid when the garden was created was poking through all over and looked quite unsightly, so the first job was to bury the membrane from view. Whilst we got on with this the children removed all the little statue animals in the garden ready to be placed at the end.

At the rear of the garden stood a birdtable, we decided to resite this at the front of the garden near the window, where it could be easily viewed by the children. We restocked it with bird food and also resited the bird bath here. We added some planters filled with various scented blooms so that the scent would waft into the ward. Finally we planted the remainder of the plants, now it was time to water them.

It was a very hot day so the gardens were in need of a good drink. Jo took charge of the watering assisted by Georgie D, and soon a water fight ensued! It was a fitting end to an enjoyable day and hopefully the gardens will bring pleasure to the staff and patients for years to come.

Here are some pictures of the 'gardeners' and the gardens, before and after.

A huge thanks to everyone that came along to help us on the day.

Click on the image to view a larger version.