Creating community gardens is something we are really passionate about and we donate, free of charge, a good deal of our time.
We are so proud to be curating an open day of 3 of our community gardens on Sat June 17th. The festival called, ‘The Trail of Wellbeing’ is aimed at showcasing our newest projects: First up, we will be joining in with the laughter yoga workshop at our Well-beeing garden at the James Wigg Practice which is now chock-full of veg and plants and shrubs with healing properties. We are very excited to have been invited in to present our case for social prescribing to the whole staff of the JW practice.
Community gardens like our Well beeing garden are aimed at treating folk as citizens within communities, rather than just patients. The BMA and Kings College have recently produced a report on the benefits of social prescribing, which clearly proves that gardening has a growing place in the NHS and wider health care system, particularly given the focus on greater integration of health services, social care and prevention.
Back to our Trail of Well being day, our second stop will be at our bucolic cottage garden on Platform 1 of Kentish Town station. We have been inundated with praise for the project. Folk and staff tell us how happy the garden makes them and what a difference a planted up area makes to a very grey and drab urban surround. It’s amazing what a few raised beds can do folk! You only need a small space. Anyone got any ideas for littles corners of their community they would like to see planted up?
In the afternoon of the Trail day, we will be stopping for tea and herb scones at The Listening Space. This courtyard garden with its surround of espaliered fruit trees is now blooming with a lovely selection of plants and grasses with the onus on a palette of purples and yellow. We have even built a large pond which we are hoping will provide an inviting new home for lots of friendly wildlife. The Listening Space garden has been designed to provide a place of refuge and contemplation for the many isolated and vulnerable folk in our community. Please do come and visit us there.
In other news, I am delighted to report that I am meeting with a new client tomorrow. Sasha is aged 7, and he wants to teach him to grow veg. I am sow excited!
Finally, here’s an idea for you sideways gardeners. Many of our clients, and so many of you gardeners out there have unused side alleyways. We want to inspire you not just to fill them up with old pots and bins, but transform them into a productive and inspiring area: perhaps a fernery. We have lots of ideas, got an unused side garden, get in touch!