Garden Club

In 2021 Hospitalfield’s Walled Garden, designed by the horticulturalist Nigel Dunnett, opened to the public. The scheme was developed to reveal the unique horticultural history of the site at Hospitalfield, which has been tended as a garden for over 800 years. The site at Hospitalfield has been populated since the 13^th century when the monks who ran Arbroath Abbey established their hotel or hospital, here where we believe that they must have grown a medicinal garden and brewed potions as medicines to improve the health and wellbeing of those who they cared for.

The garden and grounds at Hospitalfield are maintained, made fruitful and more beautiful with the fantastic support of our volunteers who meet regularly at Garden Club. Garden Club support the development of the garden from helping weed the gardens, sowing seeds, potting up plants and assisting with seasonal projects. Our next garden project is the development of the medicinal garden.

From January 2023 we are inviting a medicinal plant specialist to design the garden with Garden Club volunteers, Hospitalfield’s grounds keeping team and newly appointed Community Gardener. The new medicinal garden will be planted in a large area within the walled garden at Hospitalfield.

As part of our upcoming Garden Club sessions we’ll be planning, preparing, and planting this new medicinal garden. This Spring Garden Club will be working with Medicinal Herbalist, Terrill Dobson on this new garden project led by Hospitalfield Community Gardener, Carley Wootton. Carley is excited to be working on the medicinal garden at Hospitalfield during the Spring of 2023. She did her RHS training at the Botanics in Glasgow and has worked as a gardener in her current city, Edinburgh, and her hometown, New York. Now, she can’t wait to spend time in Arbroath’s soil and work at a garden site that has been tended for over 800 years. Her favourite herb at the moment is Filipendula ulmaria (Meadowsweet). Not only is it an excellent herb for treating colds and flavouring beers, but it can also be used to make dye – a blue one from its leaves and stems and a yellow one from its flowers!

Garden Club Volunteers currently meet regularly from 10am to 12pm on Fridays at Hospitalfield. We’re looking for volunteers to come along and get involved in the new medicinal garden at Hospitalfield. Please let us know if you’re interested in attending Garden Club by emailing volunteer@hospitalfield.org.uk

Taking part:

• Our volunteer programme is aimed at people living locally to Hospitalfield or nearby in Angus, Dundee, Tayside and the East Coast of Scotland.
• You do not need any formal training or experience to take part – All that is needed is an interest in outdoors, gardens, planting, and an enthusiasm to learn and get involved.
• Garden Club Volunteers currently meet regularly from 10am to 12pm on Fridays. If you’re interested in joining in, please do contact us at volunteer@hospitalfiled.org.uk.

Access:

• We have a budget to support local travel expenses for our volunteers. If the cost of getting to us is a barrier to you getting involved, please get in touch with us at volunteer@hospitalfield.org.uk or on 01241 656124 and we can share more information about the process of claiming local standard travel costs back.
• Please contact us regarding any reasonable adjustments required to take part in our volunteering programme.
• Currently volunteering opportunities for people under the age of 18 have some conditions in place in line with our Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy. We welcome all notes of interest currently and aim to get back in touch as soon as we’re able to discuss any current volunteering or programme opportunities. We ask that any child or young person under the age of 18 be supervised when taking part in volunteering or programmed activity at Hospitalfield. As we cannot guarantee supervision for the entirety of the volunteering sessions, we would ask that any volunteer under the age of 18 attends with written permission of a guardian or parent.
• We work to the best of our abilities and resources to ensure that Hospitalfield is an accessible space and a supportive environment. When applying to be a volunteer, we invite individuals to disclose information about their access and support needs. This will allow us to tailor the volunteer opportunities to the individual and ensure all volunteers are appropriately supported. From medical conditions through to individual preferences, we want to know more about you so we can create opportunities that work for you. Staff are always available to assist and open to conversation about how best to create accessible, enjoyable, and empowering volunteer opportunities.

• Currently we ask that anyone interested in taking part in our volunteering programme who requires personal support, to plan to attend any volunteering sessions/activity with their identified relevant personal support.

Further access notes on the house and grounds can be provided. Please contact us with any questions about accessibility.