Here at Blue Star Gardens, we are experts in creating and maintaining communal garden spaces for residential areas, with a vast knowledge of working within the retirement village sector.
Communal gardens in these areas have an added functionality of raising the spirits of residents and, it is a proven fact they are instrumental to the long-term health and wellness of residents.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/gardens-and-health
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/health-and-wellbeing
What Is A Communal Garden?
Communal gardens come in all shapes and sizes.
They may be a garden within a local green space like a park, a landscaped garden attached to a new build housing estate, a retirement village, private estate, or they may even be communal vegetable gardens and smallholdings.
The one thing that all communal gardens have in common is that they are places for the community and residents to enjoy nature and be able to access, we think this is especially important for our residential retirement home clients.
Communal Garden Flower Beds
For many of us, communal gardens mean communal flower beds, and this is definitely a popular option for communal gardens attached to residential facilities.
Borders can range from low maintenance shrubs we are used to seeing in city-based communal gardens, to brightly coloured and varied mixed borders of herbaceous perennials and shrubs.
It’s always good to have seasonal structured planting to allow for a variety of flowers in a communal garden though, as these will attract wildlife such as birds and beneficial insects as well as help our declining bee population.
Wildlife Gardens
With our team’s expert knowledge in communal gardens for retirement villages and estates, it gives us a unique opportunity to also focus on wildlife gardens, helping to bring animals, birds, and insects into the gardens to help both biodiversity and boost the mood of residents, they can keep butterfly, bird, insect records for various organisations like the RSPB, RHS etc.
Including things such as ponds and accessible outdoor furniture in a communal wildlife garden is a great way to encourage quiet reflection and give residents a place to sit while they take in the fresh air and beautiful surroundings.
We always aim to use organic mulch, and an array of planting to attract natural biodiversity for the plants, bugs, bees and birds.
Sensory Spaces
One of the types of communal garden design that is often overlooked is the sensory garden.
These are a relatively new concept, but they can be a spectacular sanctuary for adults or children with sensory processing issues, such as autism spectrum disorder, or for older residents that may be suffering from dementia.
Sensory gardens can be laid in all sorts of ways. Attention is usually paid to the colours and the smells of the garden, and there may be options for hanging wind chimes, seated areas and even edibles to really bring each sense to life.
Here at Blue Star Gardens, we are experts in creating safe outdoor spaces for retirement villages and estate management programmes. We focus on keeping the communal gardens accessible and attractive all year round to allow residents the ability to enjoy nature.
Connecting with nature can be a great benefit to everyone, but especially to older clients within retirement villages. The relaxation and health benefits of daily exercise are well documented, and we’re proud that our communal gardens are both beautiful and expertly tailored to these needs.
If you’re interested in finding more about creating a communal garden, give our friendly team a call on 07703562081 and we’ll be happy to have a chat with you to see how we can improve the outdoor space you have.