A Garden Walk . . .

Walking back up the slope towards the car park the ground levels to a terrace that was formerly a small croquet lawn 'The Ladies Lawn', during the hospital years.
In 1991 the area was set aside for the development of a medicinal garden. The initial plan was to create a series of rectangular beds and fill them with medicinal plants organised in terms of the various systems of the body. It was soon obvious that this scheme was not going to work due to the disproportionate numbers of plants within each category.
The final solution was to plant an ornamental garden with medicinal plants. Doing this the criteria for plant selection broadened and the garden now includes historic herbal remedies, folk medicine, homoeopathic medicinals and plants that are currently under investigation by drug companies.

The use of medicinal plants by people from many parts of the world has also been considered. Thus within the garden it is possible to find North American Indian, Australian Aboriginal, African, Maori, Chinese and European medicinal plants. As space is at a premium the range of plants grown changes from season to season but the majority of the most important plants that can be grown in our climate are usually represented.

Ricinus communis	Salvia sclarea	Hyoscyamus niger

Atropa belladonna

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