Lionesses come to aid of patients

NEW VIEW: The freshly new planted garden at Wairarapa Hospital.

The Carterton Central Lions Club has overseen a Wairarapa-wide Lion and Lioness fundraising project for a new garden at Wairarapa Hospital.

Last year's president, Gwenda Stewart, said the idea arose after one of their members had spent some time in the rehabilitation ward at the hospital, which looked out towards the wall of the chapel.

"All they saw for about seven weeks was a drainpipe," Mrs Stewart said.

She said the Carterton Central Lions Club did not have the means to pay for the new garden, so went wider for support.

"We're a group of ladies whose average age is about 70," Mrs Stewart said.

"I put it to the zone, so we all chipped in and paid for it.

"It's been completed, and we will put a plaque up."

The Wairarapa zone, Zone 4, includes 10 Lion and Lioness Clubs from Masterton, Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough, who all contributed equally to the cost of the garden.

Landscape designer Lyn Eglinton, who has designed all of the hospital's gardens, said the garden had been planned around the existing trees.

She said the Lions member in hospital "had got rather tired of looking at the bar white walls of the chapel and the main point of this garden was to view it from the windows".

In planning the garden, "you almost had to line on the beds to get the sight line in," Mrs Eglinton said.

"Hopefully there'll be something flowering there most months of the year."

Mrs Eglinton said she had heard that the garden is still "very new" and "won't be at its full potential till about Christmas".