St John’s Care Home in Spalding Lincolnshire was voted the Overall winner of Country Court in Bloom for 2023 and staff and residents were there when Norva, one of the wellbeing coordinators was presented with their trophy and certificate by the Chairman, Mr Abdul Kachra.
During his speech, Mr Kachra commented ‘The idea is that when you retire and you enjoy your life, at Country Court we are very passionate about wanting to engage everyone in the activities, including gardening to help keep our minds occupied.
Norva has done a wonderful job in terms of activities and supporting everyone, and I have always noticed that this home does extremely well with its garden and getting residents to be engaged and help look after it, watering and caring for the plants.
This home has won the overall trophy because overall the performance has been incredible and for that, I would like to present Norva with the trophy and certificate’.
During the spring and summer months, Country Court runs an annual gardening competition among all its 37 Care homes, which is led by the well-being teams, allowing them to incorporate the competition into their activities so all of their residents can get involved if they wish. This year there were four categories which included upcycling, a dementia-friendly outdoor space, a creative flower display and a community garden project.
The quality of the entries was high with lots of variety within each category and after the closing date, the judging took place with the senior management team of Country Court as the judging panel. A winner was chosen for each category and then an overall winner was selected and this year it was announced across the group that St John’s Care Home had been voted as the overall winner.
Their entries included a fantastic creative flower display, incorporating some upcycling to create a mobile garden display, to look like a car, featuring plants with flowers of purple and white. This was inspired by 40 years of Country Court, travelling through the years to where it is now.
Other projects included a Loch Ness Monster and a wonderful Swan Planter which were placed around the garden for everyone to enjoy.
Each home had the opportunity to nominate a resident as a Head Gardener and at St John’s they nominated Winifred Dench. When she was asked what she loves the most about gardening she said ‘It’s been wonderful, a bit like tonic and very enjoyable. It makes me feel lovely inside because gardening is something I have always liked to do.’
Winifred was presented with a medal and certificate which she was thrilled to receive and couldn’t quite believe that she had been nominated.
For more information about St John’s Care Home or to make an appointment to view the home please contact, Morgan Hicks Customer Relations Manager on 07834 790 400 or email morgan.hicks@countrycourtcare.com.
