Blossom Tree Medicine Garden

We have a vision!

We want to transform a patch of grass and weeds in a quiet corner of the Dartington Estate into a glorious medicine garden full of colour, scents and healing power. We want to create a beautiful space for residents and visitors to relax in and enjoy. It will also be a place to learn about herbal plants and experience the medicine of our land. With the blessing of the Dartington Estate, we have taken the first crucial steps of preparing the site and now we need funding to transform it into a herbal oasis.

We have already secured £2,668 from the National Gardening Scheme!
However we need to raise another £10,832 to make the garden a reality.

Why grow a Chinese Medicine garden here and will it work?!

We want to grow some of the most useful and potent plants used in Chinese Medicine. We share a similar climate to much of China and many of the plants we will grow are common to our own native gardens. It is our passion to bring awareness to the healing secrets of these plants that we are already surrounded by.

The garden will include plants we are familiar with like sage, honeysuckle, magnolia, chrysanthemum, forsythia, and goji berries, as well as other more unusual plants from the Materia Medica.

The garden will be a precious resource to support the mental health and wellbeing of our fellow tenants and local residents and visitors. It will provide a place to be in nature, take time our from busy lives and connect with others. It will have two seating areas - a single seat for personal reflection and a group seating area. In our clinics we support people with a wide range of mental and physical conditions and we feel it will be particular supportive as place to go after a treatment.

Our approach

We will adopt the forest garden design approach; choosing perennial plants situated in their most optimum position and utilising the beneficial inter-relationships of different plants. In order to preserve the mycorrhizal network and the soil quality we will adopt the ‘no-dig’ method.  

The design

Below is the preliminary garden design.

Project Stages

Phase 1 : May 2022 - Lay a groundcover of mypex and wood-chip to kill off the grass and weeds. This 'No dig' method keeps the mycorrhizal network intact, maintains soil quality and does not disturb the dormant weed seed bank. This will ensure less weeding in the garden in the future, and provide an intact soil ecosystem for the new plants to thrive.

COMPLETED

Phase 2: Spring 2023 - Infrastructure preparation including making the gate, arches, and rabbit-proof fence. Sourcing and ordering plants.

Phase 3: Autumn 2023 - Remove the wood-chip and mypex, lay the paths and sanctuary areas, install the gate, arches and rabbit-proof fence, add new soil to the existing soil to curate the best conditions for a range of biodiverse planting. Return all the wood-chip on top of the new beds, and plant shrubs & dwarf blossom trees.

Phase 4: Spring 2024 - Plant the perennials.

Phase 5: Enjoy the new garden! Ongoing care and maintenance.

Other initiatives in the garden

Once the garden is established we will be offering:

• Community harvesting and garden maintenance days
• Herb discovery workshops to teach people about the medicinal plants and how to use them to support their own and family health.
• Medicine-making workshops - we will teaching how to make herbal tinctures, salves and linaments.

About us

We are three practitioners of Chinese Medicine, two acupuncturists Charlotte Johnston and Mim Lilley, and a herbalist Mark Shanagher.
We work from the Blossom Tree clinic in Chimmels on the Dartington Estate.Mark is also a gardener with a Diploma in Sustainable Horticulture and 20 years experience gardening, focusing for the last 10 years on Forest Gardens and Medicine Gardens.

Together, we share a passion for Chinese Medicine and a love for plants. Our vision is to bring on board the local community; those who live and work nearby, those who have an interest in healing plants, and gardening enthusiasts.

Location

Just outside our clinic between Chimmels and Blacklers building ( behind Park School). We are dreaming of the smell of herbs wafting through the clinic on a summer’s day!

How the money will be used 

The money we raise will pay for:

• Trees, Shrubs and plants
• Manure, compost, sand
• Logs for path borders
• Mypex for paths
• Archways
• Hand- carved welcome sign, jig, character punches and copper labels
• Stakes and rubber ties for trees and shrubs
• A Bench
• Rabbit proof fencing

Plants we want to grow

Weeping Forsythia
White Mulberry
Magnolia
Goji Berry
Chinese Privet
Persian Silk Tree
Tree Peony
White Peony
Red Peony
Chrysanthemum
Agastache
Chinese Motherwort
Angelica
Chinese Skullcap
Woad
Dianthus
Balloon Flower
Chinese Clematis
Schisandra
Codonopsis
Honeysuckle