The Garden of Hope is a joint venture between Calas Galadhon and The Grove Estate and features the creative work of Tymus Tenk of Calas Galadhon and Patch Thibaud from The Grove. It came into being during the 2023 Relay for Life season Hope Floats as a memorial to all those who have lost their lives to cancer, and has now been restored as a lasting place of peace and remembrance.
Its return, coming during the 2026 Second Life Relay for Life season and (more personally) on the heels of my own emergence from the shadow of cancer (for the second time in a decade, albeit this time being somewhat more worrying than 2018), led it to being added to my list of places to visit.
In fact, given its ties to Calas – a place that has long been close to my heart – it quickly percolated to the top of my list, hence this article. I was also, frankly, curious as to how Calas and The Grove came together, The Grove being another place which – while I’ve not really covered it in these pages due to much of it being residential in nature – I’ve enjoyed wandering through in past visits.
The answer to this latter question, how do the two design approaches come together, is “extremely well”. The Garden of Hope is a simply beautiful setting, rich in detail, beautifully created with a multitude of spaces in which to remember those we may have lost – and serves as a fitting memorial to Crito Galtier, the original owner of The Grove, who provided guidance in the development of the Garden prior to his passing away at the end of 2023.
The Landing Point offers an engaging description of the region – which is joined to the rest of the Calas Galadhon estate, sitting as it does close to the Garden’s northern edge where it joins Calas’ Glanduin. A path leads up to this northern boundary, whilst another points south and takes visitors deeper into the region.
This southern path is, in some respects, the “stitching” that brings the “Grove influenced” and “Calas influenced” parts of the region together, the former sitting on the eastern side of the path (and meeting it at its southern end) and the latter running more down the west side of the region.
However, whilst there is this sort-of split to the region’s design, with either side of the path directly designed by Patch and Ty, the overall blending of the landscapes and features within them is a lot more subtle than their meeting simply being denoted by a path; something that becomes clear as one explores and moves from east to west and back again.
The architecture on the east side of the region, for example is clearly drawn out of the influence of Patch’s work at The Grove, whilst to the west, the Garden carries the natural loo and feel of the countryside found within many of the Calas regions. As noted, they are linked by paths and trails with – one or two exceptions duly noted in a manner that present no divide, and thus presents both halves as a whole.
The Garden also neatly brings together two very contrasting architectural styles into a single whole. Patch’s work very much speaks to Mediterranean themes and elements, leaning towards a modern take of Greco-Roman design and Tuscan influences. Ty’s work, meanwhile, as well as embracing the natural themes from Calas Galadhon, carries a strong oriental theme and motifs.
When walking through the Garden of Hope, it is hard not to be absorbed by its beauty and wrapped in a sense of thoughtful contemplation. Whether the latter is in remembrance of those we’ve lost or the great good fortune we’ve had (as in my case) in coming through an immediate threat posed by the disease, or simply in reflection of the care and love poured into the region’s design doesn’t really matter: Garden of Hope is a place which bestows a wonderful sense of tranquillity to all who pass through it.
Throughout the Garden are places to sit or dance, and secret places to discover as they pass underground. There’s also more to come, as Ty noted to me during my visit: he and Patch plan to add a memorial wall where visitors can submit a name of someone they’ve lost, together with a short message. This will likely include an interactive element (Ty suggested a lotus on one of the bodies of water) visitors can touch and have a small golden orb rise to the skies as a prayer or wish for healing.
In all, the Garden of Hope is a place of piece, harmony and beauty which should not be missed.
Slurl Details
- Garden of Hope (rated: Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 