Hello and welcome to the spring edition of Growth Point.
Increasingly there is growing awareness how gardening can be a tool to improve our mental wellbeing and almost every week there's some new media coverage of how spending time in gardens, on allotments or in nature generally is helping people. In this edition, we reflect this interest in some of our content.
We always welcome editorial contributions so if you have ideas for articles, whether it's about new Social and Therapeutic Horticulture projects, research, or stories about inspirational individuals working in the sector, we'd love to hear about them. Just email me with your ideas.
Meanwhile enjoy the spring and look out for our next edition in the summer.
Mark Lang
Next month is Mental Health Awareness Week and Thrive will be focusing on how gardening can play such a positive role for wellbeing.
Earlier this month, as part of Thrive’s It’s Not Just Gardening campaign, we released a film featuring Gardeners’ World presenter and Thrive Ambassador Mark Lane talking about how horticulture had helped his mental health.
Thrive is developing a new free online course to help more people understand and experience the health benefits of gardening. It's being created in partnership with national family-run garden centre group Notcutts and will go online this autumn.
Mental health research: Defra has commissioned a study to better understand how nature-based therapies can help people with identifiable mental illness.
The Therapeutic Nature project is being led by Exeter University and will last a year. Learn more.
Time to take a nature pill?
As the costs of healthcare rise and urbanisation expands, the value of nature prescriptions is being increasingly scrutinised. This month saw the release of research from the US looking at how urban nature experiences can reduce stress and the story was picked up widely. Here's Newsweek's report.
News: The ways gardening can support wellbeing will be celebrated in a garden specially designed for Thrive at one of the country’s most prestigious flower shows. Designed by Richard Rogers, the garden will be unveiled at RHS Chatsworth and will form part of a new Mindfulness Gardens category at the show, which runs from 5th-9th June.
How green is my valley?Professional gardener Stephen Calway and wife Regina have a big vision for a big site. They plan to transform an untamed valley into a gardening space that will benefit an entire community.
Improved behaviour, better mood, being more relaxed – just some of the ways therapeutic gardening sessions are helping patients at a hospice that’s making the most of its garden. Find out more.
*Thrive is registered in the UK as The Society of Horticultural Therapy. Thrive is a registered charity number 277570 and a limited company, number 1415700.
