A special garden for the whole community to enjoy.
The Garden for Mind opened in July 2024. Garden for Mind is an exciting initiative to create a beautiful and inspirational education, health and wellbeing garden on a previously unused piece of land at the Longstock Park Nursery, on the Waitrose & Partners Leckford Estate.
The space is used primarily by Andover Mind to deliver a variety of activities for the people who use our services, designed to promote wellbeing and mental health, as well as being available for use by other communities groups across the Test Valley.
Additionally, there are opportunities for volunteers to support the project by helping with the ongoing maintenance – get in touch today to find out how you can get involved by calling 01264 332 297.
The Garden is open every day from 9am – 5.30pm.
For any questions or enquiries, please email gardenformind@andovermind.org.uk
Follow our Garden for Mind on Facebook and Instagram! ⬇️
Combining gardening and the environment to improve mental health in Hampshire.
The covid pandemic and the ongoing financial crisis have emphasised how important nature is for our mental health and wellbeing.
In addition, the extreme climate events across the world really highlight the importance of outdoor space and the necessity to work with nature to preserve the natural environment.
The Garden for Mind project will create a space that not only provides the opportunity to
support mental health and wellbeing, but also to help educate on the climate change challenges and biodiversity loss.
Located in the heart of the Test Valley, the garden will be ideally located for the Andover Mind’s own gardening group, which sees volunteers and service users from Andover, Romsey and the surrounding villages come together in nature, providing much needed respite and therapy for mental ill-health.
While Andover Mind are leading on this project, the intention is that the garden will provide a welcoming, relaxing and inspiring outdoor space for the whole community to benefit from, with plenty of opportunities for other local charities and organisations to get involved.
Our fundraising target:
A big ambitious project like this doesn’t come without a big price tag. This is a big undertaking and will require many different resources to make it happen.
Garden for Mind is quite an undertaking and will require many different resources to make it happen along with a significant amount of fundraising.
Since launching our fundraising campaign in September, we have secured an generous £25,000 donation from Simplyhealth, donations from Stannah Lifts, Co-operative Group and KOcycle, along with a micro-grant from Natural England.
We have also been working on engaging with consultants, contractors and suppliers who have stepped forward to offer their services to the project.
If any other businesses are interested in supporting Garden for Mind with either monetary or material donations, please get in touch.
Simplyhealth donate £25k to Garden for Mind.
We are delighted to announce announced the substantial donation of £25,000 for Garden for Mind from health solutions company, and certified B Corporation, Simplyhealth.
For more information you can read the full press release.
Corporate and community, working together for good
As you can imagine there is a huge list of people and businesses to thank, as this has really been a collective achievement and every single person involved should be immensely proud of their contribution.
- Leckford Estate Sustainability Focus Group for proposing the community garden idea in the first place.
- Andrew Hoad – Head of Leckford Estate for supporting the Garden for Mind project initiative and giving the go ahead to use the land.
- Lynsey Fleming and the Trustees of the JLP Golden Jubilee Trust for funding Libby Hilling’s secondment to Andover Mind.
- Libby Hayes and the team at the Waitrose & Partners Longstock Farm Shop, nursery and landscaping team who have supported Andover Mind throughout.
Thank you for your generosity and support….
The enormous generosity and support of the team constructing and providing materials for the garden – The Construction Alliance, namely:
- Andy Maidment, Jon Edon and the team from TriAgg Construction Ltd for stepping forward as principal contractor for the project.
- Ridge & Partners for providing professional services to Andover Mind acting as contract administrator and principal designer
- Ben Hoad and the Leckford Estate Landscaping team for initial concept design
- David Crossley and team from Siteline Geospacial all l for undertaking full topographical survey of the site
- Nick Tripp and Charlotte Murrell from Taylor Tripp Landscape Design for progressing the landscape design
- Adam Turner and the team from UC Build Ltd for building the Kitchen and Giving garden
- Barry Perkins, Richard Price and Mark Holtom and team from ISG Ltd for building the Sensory Garden. (Extra thank you to Barry Perkins for tabling the idea to set up a Construction Alliance)
- Neil Nicklin, Stuart Moore, Martyn Clark and team from CTS Shopfitting for building the wellbeing garden and tool shed.
- Tony Bryant from Construction Safety Solutions Ltd for reviewing the health and safety plan and ensuring CDM compliance
- Peter Arculus and team from Acorn Design & Project Management for undertaking all the brickwork in the garden
- Mark Lewis and Alex Horsfall from CLC Group for the electrical installation on the site
- Adrian Riggs from M J Abbott Ltd for support with the irrigation materials being provided by Simon Edginton from LWS.
- Charles Shelton, Ben Price and team from Quality Irrigation Wessex for designing and installing the irrigation system
- David Cobb from Etills Ltd for supporting with rainwater harvesting tanks.
- Rupipe for providing ducting and other sundries to kick off the build
- Will Stay from W. Stay & Son Ltd for providing the metal edging to the plant beds and fencing at the bottom of the garden
- Jack Swanborough and team from Hurstbourne Forge for providing the entrance arch, water fountain and the ornamental metal garden stakes for the Squiggle Appeal.
- Simon and Braden Diplock from AFT Supplies Ltd for the pergola
- Peter Mortin and the team from Crane Garden Buildings for the wellbeing garden building.
- Alan Sargent from A.S Gardens supporting with planting and working with the students from Sparsholt College
- Matthew Thomas and the team from Frank P Matthews Ltd for providing the fruit teams.
- Hannah and the team at Topsoil UK for providing soils and compost for the garden
- Hawes Plant and Transport for discounting all transport moves in to and out of this project
- Simon Terry custodian of Anglepoise for providing the wall lights in the wellbeing garden building
- Julie Milburn and the team from Sparsholt Foundation horticulture students agreeing to support with the planting in the garden and for being part of Andover Mind’s garden maintenance army
- Andover Mind gardening club for existing and for being there to support service users connect with nature.
The generous financial donations & grants received from:
- Mandy Preece and the team from Natural England for the grant
- Laura Pearce, Charlotte Cook and the team at Simplyhealth for the donation
- Stannah Group management team for their donation
- Asda Foundation for the community grant
- James Gilbraith and Kath Uren from Coop Group for their donation
- Oil Mason and the team from KOcycle for their donation
The fundraising carried out by:
- Everyone at Simplyhealth for participating in their #30minsmovement campaign
- Barker, Son & Isherwood team for all their fundraising activities
- Andover Golf Club for hosting the annual Garden for Mind quiz night and supporting the Christmas raffle
- Helen Mothersole for running the Great South Run
- Angie Day and Kay Wallis for Walking the Test Way with Libby Hilling
- Powells for choosing the Andover Mind Garden for Mind project as a beneficiary of their charity golf event.
The wonderful support of the businesses who contributed to the various fundraising activities helping Andover Mind raise money for the project:
- Abacus Motorhomes
- Chewton Glen
- Fallen Willow Sauna
- Thruxton Circuit
- Leckford Golf Club
- Leckford Abbas Hotel
- Andover Golf Club
- Black Chalk Wine
- Tidworth Garrison Golf Club
- Cross Massage Therapy
- The Spitfire Shoot
- Lynn Woodthorpe Beauty Therapist
- Army Flying Museum
- Andover Town Mills
- Holiday Extras
- Odeon Andover
- J4K Andover
- Test Valley Open Water swimming
- Costa Coffee Andover
- Broughton Crafts
- Andrew Bulpitt
- Boots Andover
- Dobbies Garden Centre
The wonderful community of Test Valley and beyond who have purchased raffle tickets and Squiggle garden stakes, attended quiz nights and continue to help Andover Mind raise funds for the Garden for Mind.
