It took a whole community to make the RHS project a success!
- carolineblake-syme
- 31 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Doro’s story of the RHS garden starting from September 2025 to this week…..
What a few weeks it has been!
From the final push to get the Woodstock Homes Multiple Sclerosis Pocket Garden ready for the RHS Badminton Flower Show, to opening day and a Silver Medal, to the relocation on Monday 13 July to the Brightwell garden, with the help of an army of wonderful volunteers. It has genuinely been a whirlwind, and one I will never forget.
I keep coming back to the same thought: none of it would have been possible without community. Not in an abstract, "we're all in this together" way, but in the very real, hands-in-the-soil, turning-up-when-it's-hot, staying-late-when-it-matters kind of way.
So please indulge me while I say a proper thank you:
To James Hutchinson and Woodstock Homes, for believing in this garden from the start and sponsoring it into existence. To Michael Leech (The Somerset Gardener) and Gavin Moth, whose design, hard work and heart made a first-time RHS collaboration into a Silver Medal-winning garden. To Sarah Watson, for your help along the way. To Martin and Linda Newman, and to Caz and family, for being there through it all.
To our incredible volunteers from Lloyds Banking Group and Aviva, and to Erica and the team at Kellaway Building Supplies, and P Phillips and Sons, thank you for your time and generosity. To Lara and Victoria for taking on the heat to raise Brightwell awareness, to Dave and Sylv, Jen and Jenny, our wonderful garden volunteers, to Sharon Lou who made sure everyone was fed and watered, and Helen and Monique who welcomed and looked after volunteers on the day, I am so grateful.
To Ross and Kevin at BBC News Points West, and Joe Sims at BBC Radio Bristol, thank you for telling this story with such care, and for giving it your time and airspace.
To every member of Brightwell staff and volunteers who kept things running while we all got swept up in garden fever. To everyone who visited us at Badminton, everyone who voted for the garden, and every gardening influencer who shared our story, thank you for carrying it further than we ever could alone.
It underlines something we already know: when a community pulls together, extraordinary things happen. We see it in the volunteers who helped prep the Therapy Garden path for resurfacing, so every member can have access. We see it in the local Bradley Stoke community, who show up time after time. We see it every day in members who support each other through living with a neurological condition, and in a team of staff, volunteers and supporters who always go the extra mile.
Where there is a will, there really is a way, and we have never felt that more than we do right now, looking at a garden that began as a sketch, and now sits, replanted, in our own Therapy Garden for members to enjoy for years to come.
Thank you to everyone, and please forgive me if I have left anyone out, it is only by name, not intention. This one belongs to the whole community.
We would like to invite you all to our Summer Fair this coming Saturday, 18 July, from 11 am- 3 pm, when the gardens will be open for everyone to enjoy.
