One of the core activities of The Ideas Fund project at KC is to redesign the well-being garden at the centre. Work on this part of the project has already begun with the Service User’s (SU’s) previously visiting Attadale Gardens and Flourish sensory garden Broadford & Strath Community Company to find out what plants grow well in the Northwest coast of the Highlands.

In April, work on this element of the project continued with the SU’s taking part in garden design activities. Firstly, we got creative. Using gardening magazines, books about wildlife and creative materials we started to design images or descriptions of our ideal gardens. This involved making flowers from card, drawing pictures of our ideal garden and thinking about what wildlife we would like to attract to the garden and how we might do that. The ideas we came up with during this activity will be on display in KC so if you visit the Nice Café please look out for these on the display boards.

As well as thinking about what members of KC want to see in the garden, the SU’s starting to prepare for community consultation and public engagement in relation to the garden. This activity involved practicing asking the question ‘What is your favourite flower?’ with one another. Asking questions is a key research skill that KC have been learning about since the beginning of the project. We aim to build up our confidence in this skill over time with lots of practice and support.

Lastly, we took a walk in the local community to see what flowers, plants and wildlife we could spot in Kyleakin. During this walk, the SU’s practiced using data gathering tools and methods by recording videos and images of what they saw and heard. We even got to speak to local people and some of them shared stories of their own gardens.

The SU’s at KC have made a brilliant start on developing ideas for the well-being garden, with accessibility and inclusivity remaining at the heart of the design. We look forward to welcoming community members to contribute to the redesign in the future. Watch this space.

Written by Dr Megan Dickson – Researcher based at University of the Highlands and Islands.

Megan and her colleague Prof. Gill Hubbard are visiting KC once a month to co-facilitate the project with KC staff. Read more about the project here –  Ideas Fund.