Kathryn Cribbes has turned her Caerphilly front garden into an enchanted wishing tree, spending more than £3,000 and 10 days building a display that now stretches 18ft long and 8ft wide. The 47-year-old has opened it to visitors who are invited to walk through the garden, leave a donation and write down a wish for the tree.
Cribbes said the project was made for Make-A-Wish Foundation because a wishing tree felt like the right fit for a charity tied to children’s hopes. She said she wanted people to come, enjoy the space and have somewhere pleasant to sit and talk before dropping coins into the bucket if they wished. The garden was completed with fairy lights, lanterns and handwritten wishes from visitors.
The display is the latest in a run of themed worlds Cribbes has been building in her front garden over the past year, after Halloween, Christmas and an Alice in Wonderland-inspired Easter. This one was put together with eight pool noodles, six metres of armature wire, two metres by one metre of insulation boards, expanding foam and hundreds of artificial leaves. Her husband, Graeme, 55, fashioned the supporting framework from insulation boards, while her daughter, Lowry Roberts, 22, helped with the work.
Cribbes said she is currently off work with a broken arm, but still managed to build the garden herself with help from her family. She said making the tree took three days and the whole garden took ten. The base, she said, is a huge pipe with insulation boards forming a cross frame inside, while the branches were made from pool noodles with wire inside so they could bend into shape before being wrapped in newspaper, masking tape and expanding foam.
The project also has a practical side. Treat boxes containing wishing leaves, cupcakes, crisps and drinks are priced at £40 per 50 boxes, while running costs are around £80 per 50 visitors. Local Brownies, Rainbows and Girl Guides groups have already visited, and guests are encouraged to write down a wish and place it on the tree.
Cribbes said the handwritten notes are often deeply personal. Some, she said, ask for children of their own, for a father to spend time with them, or for dead partners to be missed less. She also said many older people do not have anyone to talk to, which is part of why she wanted the garden to be a place where people could sit, look around and leave with a little more than they arrived with. In Caerphilly, the display is no longer just a decoration. It is a fundraiser, a meeting place and, for the people leaving wishes on its branches, a small moment of release.
