Patrons
We are delighted to have three superstars from the world of gardening, health and wellbeing as our Patrons (from left to right): Olivia Chapple, Sue Stuart-Smith and Arit Anderson.
Olivia Chapple OBE EMH
Olivia is the founder and Chair of Trustees of Horatio’s Garden; a charity creating and nurturing beautiful, fully accessible garden projects in the heart of NHS spinal injury centres to support people affected by spinal injury across the UK. A former GP, Olivia has and contributed to articles and spoken at events highlighting the benefits of gardens in healthcare. In April 2024, Olivia was appointed to the role of High Sheriff of Wiltshire. In May, she was awarded the prestigious Elizabeth Medal of Honour by the RHS, and in June she was awarded an OBE for her services to charity.
Sue Stuart-Smith
Sue Stuart-Smith, a prominent psychiatrist and psychotherapist, graduated in English literature at Cambridge University before going on to train as a doctor. She worked in the National Health Service for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. She currently works for DocHealth, a not-for-profit service that helps doctors suffering from stress and burnout. Her bestselling book, The Well Gardened Mind, published in 2020 was a Times and Sunday Times book of the year. It has since been translated into eighteen languages. Along with her husband Tom Stuart-Smith, the celebrated garden designer, she has founded a not for profit initiative called The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health which incorporates a Plant Library and is based in an old orchard at their home in Hertfordshire.
Arit Anderson is a garden and landscaper designer, writer, podcaster and TV presenter. Arit spent 25 years working in the dynamic industries of retail fashion and creative events, she balanced this fast-paced career with personal interests in well-being, working as a part-time therapist in London and teaching holistic therapies. Arit studied garden design at Capel Manor College and went on to win a Gold Medal at RHS Hampton Court in 2016 in the conceptual category. The garden was televised and its message on climate change and the environment is now at the heart of Arit’s work. Arit’s passion for wellbeing is still important to her, and one of her roles now is Trustee for the National Garden Scheme, a charity that raises funds for nursing and health charities.
Trustees
Gardening4Health is steered by a board of Trustees. They oversee the charity’s activities, set its strategic direction and ensure that it acts at all times in pursuit of its stated mission and objectives.
Anna Baker-Cresswell
As a proud Northumbrian, Anna has spent the last 2 decades working in the military charity sector following the death of her beloved Mother from Parkinson’s. A brief flirtation reading Philosophy and History of Art at University College London (UCL) was followed by years of working in racing and polo in Australia.
Anna studied Social & Therapeutic Horticulture at Coventry University before starting a charity in her Mother’s memory to bring Horticultural Therapy to the military in the UK (it had been used by the military in the US since Vietnam) in 2007. Building on her experiences she subsequently set up HighGround in 2012 to help those with military skills and experience find jobs they like and enjoy in the land-based sector.
Anna’s garden is her pride and joy. When not speaking in public about Horticultural Therapy and the military, she can be found tending her plants and trying to fit more in! With Cath Manuel, Anna has set up Therapeutic Garden Tours.
Richard Claxton
As a GP, and a keen gardener, I have long been aware of the benefits that come from gardening and horticulture for my own well-being, but more importantly for that of my patients. To this end I’ve been working, with other partners, on making Social and Therapeutic Horticulture as widely available as possible.
I’ve been a health columnist for Gardens Illustrated Magazine, and I have a Diploma in garden design, specialising in gardens for healthcare settings. I volunteer as a guide at Sissinghurst, and I am a Trustee of Greenfingers Charity, which funds and builds gardens for Children’s Hospices.
Boyd Douglas-Davies
40+ years in garden centres and nurseries has shown me the numerous benefits that time with plants/in a garden provide. I was President of the Horticultural Trades Association for 3 years and I am now Chair of the Environmental Horticulture Group – an industry group focusing on ensuring the government understands the value horticulture can play in improving the environment and nation’s health. I am also Chairman of The Greenfingers Charity.
Maggie Haynes
After serving in the Intelligence Corps for 21 years, followed by 5 years security consultancy, I wanted to pursue a project that had sustainability at its heart. With an aim to teach children about the environment, food education and grow food for the local community organically, in 2005 I set out to convert a green pasture field in Southbourne into an organic smallholding. Tuppenny Barn is now an accredited environmental charity that runs many green therapy projects as part of its charitable activities. I am hoping to help support Gardening 4 Health in its mission to increase the awareness of Social and Therapeutic Horticulture nationally, starting with the Tonbridge and Paddock Wood Therapy Gardens.
Alison Marsden
I am a long term advocate of the power of gardening to support wellbeing. As a trained Social & Therapeutic Horticulture (STH) practitioner my experience includes working with dementia cafés, care homes, hospice day therapy, mental health service users and community gardens.
In July 2024 I completed an MSc in Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion with the University of Hertfordshire and this underpins my own practice, support provided to STH projects and work to establish STH as a profession in the UK.
My first career in IT culminated in project and risk management, transferable skills that are just as useful now that I have swapped an office for the garden. I am delighted to be a trustee of Gardening4Health helping to bring the benefits of gardening to a wider audience.
Susan Taheri
Susan has worked as an NHS GP in Devon for over twenty years. She is a keen gardener and recognises for herself the huge benefits this brings in terms of her own wellbeing. She holds a Diploma in Lifestyle Medicine and as a clinician is interested in the idea of ‘what makes us healthy’. Her passion for the power of green space, horticulture and nature to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of her patients led to her founding a green social
prescribing project, Growing Well Garden, in a an overgrown corner of a field next to her surgery in early 2022.
She continues to combine a career in general practice with working alongside patients and volunteers in the garden as well as undertaking teaching opportunities for the next generation of doctors at the University of Exeter Medical School.
Anne Wagstaff
My early accounting career with Touche Ross allowed me to travel to live and work in Sydney, Australia before returning to the UK to raise my family. I enjoyed volunteering in the community as Chairman of Governors at the local Primary School before working for the National Trust at Ightham Mote. I now work as a potter, making and teaching ceramics and nurturing my own rural garden. I volunteer with a mental health organisation and value the contribution of Horticultural Therapy to wellbeing.
Gardening4Health 