IF YOU fancy flexing your muscles voluntarily in one of North Devon's most special green oases, then now is the time to go for it.

Successful enthusiasts will join a small band of gardeners at North Devon Hospice – nothing too arduous, of course, more a case of the chance to nurture and maintain six cherished acres that double as a haven of peace and retreat for patients with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Tanyah Pascoe, 40, is part of the current team and doesn't hide her joy and fulfilment of just being there.

Last year she was suffering from cancer and spent several months and an uncertain future at the hospice in Deer Park Road, Barnstaple, where she benefited from specialist care and spiritual support.

Now Tanyah, who has a son Sam, 20, and a daughter China, 14, is in recovery mode with dogged spirit. Five months ago she decided to rekindle her horticultural skills and at the same time repay some of the professional kindnesses she received.

And she loves every moment of her Monday stints with spade and trowel as she steadily rebuilds her strength. Tanyah qualified in countryside management, hedge laying and dry stone walling at Bicton College and also holds a chain saw licence, so treading the soil has a familiar – and comforting – feel.

"I love it here," she enthuses. "In fact, I never want to go home. And Colin is an inspiration."

Colin? He's Colin Porter who heads the gardening group and who tells me: "This is a very special place with some lovely people. To do my horticultural stuff here is a privilege."

Colin first became involved in the hospice four years ago and brought with him the sort of expertise that would make many a gardening coterie drool with envy.

Schooled at Kew Gardens and later employed at Rosemoor, Colin gave up his regular salary at the Torrington RHS nerve centre 12 years ago to run his own landscape and garden design business.

That's not all. A year ago he was Horticulture Week's Professional Gardener of the Year award and now visits the hospice two days a month as adviser in a professional capacity and oversees the volunteers once a week in his unpaid role.

He says: "One of the things we wanted to do was to create lots of different environments within the gardens. This means that, whatever the mood our patients and their families are in, there is a place within the gardens that reflects this and they can feel at home there.

"That is why we have everything from a kitchen garden, where people can get their hands dirty working the soil, to a Japanese-inspired retreat garden, where quiet contemplation is encouraged.

This year saw the completion of Colin's latest venture – a physic garden, helped by generous funding from Devon County Council.

This feature, enhanced by a slate retaining wall and oak benches, is devoted to herbs and plants with medicinal and scented properties and is a first for any hospice in the UK.

Many of the hospice's patients receive complementary therapies which may involve the use of herbs and essential oils extracted from them as proven by science or promoted as folklore.

Close by is a small kitchen garden where patients are encouraged to grow all things from asparagus to raspberries, cabbages to pumpkins, all of which finds its way to the hospice kitchen and, ultimately, on to the plate.

Continue your wanderings along a central curved path and you'll discover a long autumn and winter border full of heathers, dogwoods and viburnums, a mazzard orchard celebrating North Devon's very own cherry, with 25 trees to mark the hospice's 25th anniversary, two ponds with waterfall, a rose garden and a secluded retreat garden.

Make no mistake, a huge bounty of colour, form and fragrance has been packed into those six acres.

Back to the volunteers and Cyril Smale freely admits he knew nothing about gardening until he enrolled with the group 18 months ago. Previously a driver volunteer there for five years, he says: "If you love the outdoors you'll enjoy gardening here.

"My biggest worry was being told by Colin to do some weeding but not knowing which were weeds and which were not."

Completing the group who give up their time to dig, plant, prune and weed are Heather Purser, Marion Wright and Barry Braunton, while prodigious help has come from businesses such as creative agency Bray Leino, who cleared the grounds for a community orchard, and pharmaceutical firm Actavis, who created the rockery between the two ponds.

The hospice, which cares for more than 100 patients daily, is the only one in Britain to open for National Gardens Scheme charities and this year amassed in excess of £1,000 from two public weekends – a total split between the two organisations. Next year the hospice intends going it along, ensuring that all profits will benefit it and it alone and will throw in a fete and other surprise extras.

Meanwhile, garden lovers across North Devon can look forward to a riot of colour next spring, thanks to countless bulbs and early beauty from plants and shrubs – all thriving in the tranquillity of a garden that means so much to so many.

Call the hospice on 01271 344248 if you have a penchant for voluntary work in the garden.