The residents and staff at Rose Lodge Care Home have been blooming with pride after receiving a Community Enhancement Award for their front garden display.
The Community En-hancement Awards, organised by Great Aycliffe Town Council, sees certificates of merit awarded to individual front gardens, floral displays or streets that enhance the overall visual appearance of the area. Along with their award Rose Lodge received a trophy, £50 of gift vouchers and a box of biscuits.
The award-winning entrance garden display at the home, which provides residential care for the elderly and people living with dementia care, features a variety of beautiful bedding flowers and potted plants as well as ‘flowerpot people’ centrepieces, eco-friendly decorations handmade by residents and staff at the home.
Ken Pratt, the husband of a resident at Rose Lodge, also kindly volunteered his time and gardening skills to help transform the look of the home’s entrance by adding colourful floral borders and planters.
It was double celebrations for the home which was also recently named as the runner up in a national horticultural competition which encourages care homes to get creative when decorating their gardens.
The annual gardening competition, known as ‘The Doorstep Challenge’, is held by UK Care providers The Maria Mallaband Care Group and Countrywide Care Homes with their 80 residential and nursing homes across the UK, Scotland and Northern Ireland participating. The aim of the challenge is for each home to make the entrance to their home look bright and colourful, creating a ‘wow factor’.
Nicola Wheatley, Care Manager at Rose Lodge Care Home, Said: “We are absolutely delighted. We were all so proud of how our grounds look and to have the hard work of the staff, residents and family members who volunteered their time formally recognised is wonderful. We’d like to say a special thank you to Ken for all the time and effort he has dedicated. Our entrance has been attracting a lot of attention from passers by and we’ve had some lovely comments from visitors to the home about how beautiful our gardens look.”
