Garden has healing as its goal

Healing is being extended outdoors from today at the Kidz First children's hospital in South Auckland with the official opening of a "healing garden."

Containing a yellow concrete path, dubbed the Yellow Brick Road, a water feature, trees, seats and a mural with a Pacific theme, the courtyard garden is designed as a peaceful complement to the more intensive healing that goes on inside.

The backers of the garden hope it will "stimulate [children's] engagement with the environment."

"The garden should provide a diversity of informal settings for walking, privacy, sitting, socialising and sensory interest ... "

They say the development of healing gardens at hospitals is "part of the total concept for caring for children, young people, families and staff."

One of the coordinators of the project, Mark Sinclair, said yesterday that Lions club members built the garden, using donated materials.