The Garden
of Courage

The Wellbeing Garden, also known as the Courage Garden, is a community-focused landscape design developed to provide a safe, restorative and nurturing outdoor environment for women and families affected by trauma.

The project explores how immersive, nature-led environments can support wellbeing, recovery and connection through everyday interaction with living systems — plants, animals and shared outdoor activity.

Developed in collaboration with a women’s support organisation, the garden responds to the need for a secure and welcoming space that offers both privacy and opportunities for collective engagement. The ambition was to create an environment that feels generous, purposeful and alive, supporting a wide range of emotional and practical needs, from quiet retreat and reflection to learning, play and shared responsibility.

The design adopts a holistic wellbeing-led approach, organising the garden as a series of interconnected outdoor rooms and landscapes that support choice, agency and different modes of engagement.

The proposal brings together therapeutic landscape design with small-scale ecological systems, including:

• A sensory garden supporting calm, grounding and regulation
• Areas for food growing, including aquaponic systems, encouraging learning and stewardship
• Spaces for gentle animal interaction, such as hens and small livestock, supporting routine, responsibility and emotional connection
• Provision for pet therapy and animal-assisted wellbeing activities
• An inset insect hotel and biodiversity features supporting learning and ecological awareness

"Together, these elements create a living environment where nature is not decorative, but actively participates in daily life and recovery."

Wellbeing, safety and inclusion

Safety, dignity and inclusion were central to the design process. The garden is structured to provide clear boundaries and enclosure where needed, while maintaining visual openness, daylight and connection to the wider landscape.

Level routes, wheelchair-accessible planting beds and varied seating are integrated throughout, ensuring the space can be used comfortably by people of different ages, abilities and confidence levels.

Social value and community impact

The Wellbeing Garden demonstrates how small-scale, thoughtfully designed outdoor environments can deliver meaningful social value. By combining nature, activity and shared care, the project supports wellbeing at an individual level while fostering a sense of community and belonging.