About the garden

The Blossom Tree Medicine Garden is a collection of medicinal herbal plants and place of sanctuary and community connection situated between Chimmels and Blacklers on the Dartington Estate. The idea for the garden took seed back in 2021 when a number of tenants and members of the Blossom Tree Clinic became inspired to transform the neglected piece of land sitting between the two properties. At that time the land had sadly become a mass of weeds and was a sorry sight between these two iconic buildings designed by the famous architect Lescaze.

Designed using a forest garden approach, this evolving garden is becoming a place of beauty and biodiversity.  Here we are cultivating some of the most useful and potent plants used in Chinese Medicine, many of which are familiar to our native gardens and hedgerows, yet their healing properties are little known.  In the garden you will find plants such as honeysuckle, white peony, Chinese rhubarb, weeping forsythia and goji berry, alongside more unusual species from the Chinese Materia Medica.  A full guide to the garden is available online HERE

To bring this idea to life the tenants had to raise money and galvanise volunteers. With hard work they have managed to raise the funds through the National Gardening Scheme, crowdfunding and the National Lottery. From Spring 2022 - to Autumn 2024 they organised a series of volunteer days and many volunteers came to prepare and create the garden, with the planting up of the herbs, laying paths and digging a large pond. And then the magic began to happen as the plants began to establish themselves and take their place. 

This season with the help of a second National Lottery grant the garden will have extra benches, an information board and signs for the 50 different varieties of medicinal plants. There will be a series of volunteer mornings happening on alternate Wednesdays which will support the maintenance and development of the garden with activities such as pruning, gentle weeding, planting, and watering. In addition to the volunteer mornings there will be a series of Wellbeing and Plant Discovery Days providing the opportunity for deeper immersion into the garden and to learn more about the medicine they provide.