The hidden gems of Mountbatten

The Island climate is conducive to things like cork oak trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees. You can find all of these in the gardens at Mountbatten. In season, you will find rare Bee Orchids. The decking, which is wheelchair friendly, allows you to move through the different parts of Mountbatten’s garden, from the Chelsea Flower Show, People’s Prize winning Mediterranean garden to the flower borders and the children’s playground. It is all lovingly tended by – astonishingly only three – volunteers. These volunteers weed, prune, water, mulch, plant, and cultivate seedlings. One of them, Nicola, generously took Tia on a comprehensive tour over three separate days, in between her work in the garden and also in the busy Café…

The gardens delight the senses. There is the sound of a blackbird. Water splashing in a fountain. Gold and silver grasses rustling. An ancient oak tree. The smell of the canary yellow, Mountbatten roses, peppery nasturtiums, scented geraniums, and tomato vines currently laden with fruit. 

The blue picket fence of the children’s play area is decorated with homemade sunflower panels (the petals are made from donated, recycled bottle tops). The panels were recently donated by a mother and daughter team.

At the very back of the garden are three large and carefully tended compost bins. The garden is organic. Nothing to harm visitors, residents or wildlife. Inside the Café, there is a small sign next to some paper bags. “Hospice Grown Tomatoes, suggested donation 75 pence, please leave in collection box.” There are warm, sunny spots, shady spots, spots out in the open and under cover. There are tables with umbrellas, benches, and wicker chairs that can almost hold two people. There is a section where the outside tables are highly visible and there are spots that are hidden away. There are places where, as a number of Tia’s interviewees have told her, you can sit and find solace at trying times, and where staff themselves can hide away for a few moments to collect themselves or hold sensitive conversations with service users and families. There are also secrets to be discovered.…

These small treasures are placed, and sometimes half-hidden throughout the gardens. Nicola pointed some of them out to Tia as they walked and talked… 

The pebbles – Tia has now discovered maybe twenty of them. She is pretty sure that there are a lot more…. They are part of a project by the Young Adults Group at Mountbatten. The group, aged between 14 and 25, meet weekly along with volunteers and Sarah Butler, a dedicated nurse who works with them. The same group worked in 2020 with Nordoff Robbins music therapist Fraser Simpson, meeting online during the lockdown. They collaborated then to compose a song for the Mountbatten Choir, One Day Soon. 

There are a number of important artistic choices involved in the creation and display of these miniature artworks. The pebbles themselves seem to have been carefully chosen according to match each artist’s preferences for colour, texture, shape, size and subject matter. They are decorated in many different ways – bugs, birds, abstract designs, bright and pastel colours. Some of them are ‘hidden’ in plain sight. Others nestle among plants and surfaces and take a little time before they are discovered. All of them are cleverly and wittily placed so that they enhance, and are enhanced by, their surroundings. They are given freely to the gardens, not taken home for private viewing. And so, these artfully crafted gems mingle with the gardens – and each other. It is possible to follow them – an extensive trail from spot to spot and in ways that call attention to nature’s minute detail – the plants, their colours and textures, and to the other materials and artworks nearby…  

A white design in a green and white setting, an owlet with a bright green tail, and a woodpecker with a visitor (Photo: TD)

Tia was appreciating these ‘hidden treasures’ during the Remembering with Ribbons season at Mountbatten. 

That is the time of year when people attach a ribbon – yellow or orange, Mountbatten’s vibrant, sunflower colours – to something – anything, anywhere, in the garden to remember a loved one who has died. Sometimes people also leave poems, their own compositions or old favourites, protected from the rain in waterproof wrappers. So, the Mountbatten garden, itself a work of art, and further decorated this month with blazons of love and remembrance, was a most magical setting in which to discover these half-secret miniature works, each one of which will have a story to tell.