Naomi House Children’s Hospice - ‘The Circle of Life Garden’
Sauterelle feel very privileged to have been asked to design a garden for Naomi House. The garden is just outside the ’Butterfly Suite’ and will be used by bereaving families. A sensitive garden such as this required a lot of thought, careful consideration and consultation with the wonderful people who work at the hospice. From these moments of contemplation grew the ‘Circle of Life’ garden.
We wanted to create a garden with depth and gravity, yet with peace and hope too, a space for reflection and calm, where comfort could be sought and memories can be cherished. The garden starts at the ‘Circle of Life’ water feature in the centre of the garden, illuminated at night with its circular flow of water, and a reflective pool where wishes can be made. The ‘Memory Lane Labyrinth’ is a path that leads from the water feature, through the Enchanted Woods, winding through the ‘Gardens of Each Season’, past the ‘Faerie Mushroom Seating’ to the ‘Jewel Tree’ at its heart and then back out along the restorative and calming path paved with memory stones, each one with a small plaque inserted into it... back to the beginning again, to the ‘Circle of Life’ feature.
The garden has been designed using allegories and design principles such as the Golden Section. The central circular area is the exact diameter of the small tower that overlooks the garden, the ‘Gardens of Each Season’ represent the circle and cycles of life, where in Spring nature springs forth after a few rays of sunshine, with new growth and new life, and through the passage of time progresses in a cycle, with a beginning, a centre and an end and then a new beginning, like life, where with each birth there is a death, with each death there is new life.
The Labyrinth is also symbolic of the journey through life, unlike the Maze which uses the right hand side of the brain and is confusing and frustrating and requires concentration, the Labyrinth uses the left hemisphere of the brain, and allows peace and meditation and restorative calm as the journey along it follows just one path which brings us back to the beginning.
BEFORE
AFTER
Coming soon...