A DAWLISH secure hospital has won a competition to win the RHS Back to Nature garden from the Chelsea Flower Show.

The 60-bed Dewnans Centre beat off competition from 23 other NHS trusts to win the garden which has been co-designed by the Duchess of Cambridge.

The competition is part of the NHS and RHS partnership to raise awareness of gardening for good mental health.

As part of its Greening Great Britain Campaign for health and the environment, the RHS will relocate plants and landscaping from the 2019 RHS Back to Nature Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show to the Dewnans Centre to create a green space for patients and hospital staff to enjoy.

The Back to Nature Garden is one of this year’s most hotly anticipated installations thanks to its association with the duchess, who is a keen advocate of mental health causes.

The Dewnans Centre is a medium secure hospital on a site with an additional 54 beds in other buildings.

It supports the recovery of some of the most socially disenfranchised people who often have no access to natural habitats.

In its competition entry form, the Dewnans Centre said that the garden would provide a sanctuary, a spiritual and peaceful space for patients, staff and carers to enjoy.

The garden would offer a chance to bring the outside in, especially important for people who will always have limited access to green spaces.

For patients it would mean ownership, a chance to put something back, as well as giving opportunities for co-production through joint work with staff, experts, community and family members.

The Devon Partnership NHS Trust, which runs the centre, also said: ‘Past experience has shown us that, when nothing else works, the garden can.’

Sue Biggs, RHS director general said: There is thankfully a growing realisation that gardening can and does make an immensely positive difference to our health and wellbeing, and we’re committed to continuing to do more and more to raise awareness of this and to help more people have access to gardens, green spaces and growing plants.’

Landscape architects Andree Davis and Adam White, co-designers of the garden, will be designing and creating the garden after the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.