Pathways to Recovery

A proposal for a show garden to be built to highlight and celebrate the vital work of the drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity Change Grow Live (CGL). Through the use of pioneer plants native to the UK the garden traces the charity’s approach to recovery through a rill of water running the length of the plot. No dramatic flourishes, just a slow and steady progression forwards as the water wears away at sharp broken edges to produce a landscape in which plants sometimes dismissed as a nuisance or troublesome can bloom.

CGL’s strength lies in the human connections its forges and a final curve in the water enframes a quiet spot for people to come together and enjoy the garden. The team at CGL recognise that people are not just problems to be fixed and sometimes all they can offer them are ‘moments of calm amongst the crazy’. This garden will have serves its purpose if it can help provide just one more moment of calm to help everyone a little with the crazy.