Digging deep for ELF’s family suite

The new ELF family suite at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital received a boost when an East Devon garden centre helped to finish the exterior.

Otter Nurseries in Ottery St Mary was approached by landscape architect, Dan Hutchinson of Stride Treglown, for donations of plants and labour for two outdoor spaces around the new building, including a small garden intended as a private area for patients and their families.

The garden centre’s garden designer Anna Childs and her team visited the site on several occasions, preparing the ground and planting suitable varieties of plants including Phylostachys Nigra (black bamboo), Rhododendron, Clematis and Pinus. In the spring, the plants will start to leaf up and flower adding attractive foliage to the two gardens. As well as the plants, Otter provided white chippings and pearl white cobbles for the gardens.

ELF launched its Chevithorne Appeal in March 2015 with the aim of raising £420,000 to fund a family suite at the RD&E’s Yarty Ward. The suite will ensure that critically and terminally ill patients can be with their loved ones during difficult times and enable families to be together when it matters the most.

The building of the ELF family suite is almost complete and ELF has just £4,000 left to raise. It comprises a living area, a family en-suite bedroom, a patient bedroom with access to the private garden. It will be decorated and furnished so that families can enjoy home comforts and privacy whilst going through such difficult times. The first families will be using the suite by the end of January.

Mags Naylor, ELF Chief Executive said: “ELF is grateful to Otter Nurseries for providing plants and working on the garden to make it a serene space for families to enjoy together.”