Gardening Through the Seasons – Climate Week Reflections

Hillcrest recognises the vital role that greenspaces and biodiversity play in supporting our wellbeing and delivering on our environmental commitments. 

As part of this year’s Scottish Climate Week, therapeutic gardener Janet Hughes shares her seasonal reflections from the gardens she supports in Dundee. Highlighting the joys, challenges, and climate-conscious choices made by tenants and people we support across eight locations. 

Janet says:“My role as a therapeutic gardener is to enable Hillcrest Futures Service users and Hillcrest Tenants to make the most of their outdoor green spaces. I am currently involved in approximately eight locations, helping to maintain and grow in a variety of spaces.

As with most gardening years, this one has presented successes and challenges. Many flowers have enjoyed the warm summer, the raspberries were amazing, and dry conditions have kept the slugs and snails at bay.   

Although some plants and animals have been quite happy, it has been a challenge to keep everything watered and fed.  I feel like I have been surgically attached to a watering can!” 

Janet’s highlights from the gardens: 

• “The gardening group at Dawson Park grew some impressive onions and some small but perfectly formed pumpkins. They have also shared a continuous supply of lettuce, kale (good for soup and feeding hamsters), beans and peas. The cosmos grown from seed are still flowering providing a later source of food for the bees. The group were thrilled to discover a bird’s nest and a vole darting about the undergrowth (even if it was stealing the strawberries…). They’ve started composting and made great use of water butts- hopefully leading to even bigger pumpkins next year!  

• Tenants at Candle Lane have continued to add some colour to their environment and another mainstream tenant has installed flower planters in an area with only grass and sparse hedge.

• Alexander Street is always buzzing with bees especially the poppies and geraniums. This year we tried companion planting with Calendula alongside peas and lettuce, and it worked well. 

• Another service user planted nasturtiums to keep cabbage white butterflies away from his kale. This proved very successfully. He has also been making his own compost and was thrilled to use some to plant new strawberry plants in. He is going to try growing a pumpkin in the compost heap next year. 

The combination of heat, wind, and a summer storm took its toll on some plants. So, this Autumn I will be assessing which plants survived and thrived this year and doing more research into climate resilient planting. I will do some tidying but will leave most of that until spring to leave seedheads for birds and safe habitats for insects and wildlife to overwinter. 

Most importantly, I will be mulching, helping to maintain soil health and retain as much moisture as possible to help plants survive in the future.” 

We’d like to say a big Thank You to Janet and everything she does to spread the joy of gardening to our tenants and the people we support!