This week, our team at PIER would have been taking part in the 2020 Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) Flower Show Tatton Park. While the event is cancelled this summer, we’re looking forward to next year and wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on the benefits of community gardens such as ours.
When our community garden PIER began seven years ago, our aim was to improve the health and wellbeing of our service users and the wider community through social and therapeutic horticulture. This aim remains the same today.
In October, Rachael, our Service Manager who oversees PIER, received an award in the new Health and Wellbeing category at the RHS Northwest In Bloom Awards. Not only was it the icing on the cake of a great year following our wins at Tatton Park, but it made us feel proud that we continued to be successful in the aim we set all those years ago.
Anybody who gardens knows just how good it is for us physically and mentally. The only thing that beats gardening is gardening in a social setting and that is what PIER has brought to our community.
Therapeutic horticulture affords us the opportunity to engage with people from all walks of life, with its unique ability to offer activities that can be tailored for anybody to take part and feel pride in. Whether that be the experienced gardeners out there, somebody growing their first sunflower or those who simply appreciate green spaces that give them a chance to socialise or get away from the stresses of life.
Horticulture teaches us new skills, not just in the physical sense of learning to garden but all the attributes that come with it. For example, the ability to sit back and take notice of the natural world.
It provides a wanted distraction for when we are struggling and a sense of purpose, the opportunity to make connections with a diverse range of people and above all, it empowers us to make a visible positive impact on the places that we live and work. Community gardening does all of this and more.
From our service users, passersby, community groups, school children and teachers, volunteers, individuals with various conditions who come to us to support their recovery, people from local businesses, families and many more who have joined us – it’s been incredible for our team at PIER to witness first-hand the benefits horticulture has had on thousands of people in the community who have come to or connected with our garden over the years.
But the work doesn’t stop here! We now move forward to further develop our ‘gardening on prescription' services and undertaking projects around therapeutically informed environments, offering outdoor meeting spaces and looking at how therapeutic horticulture can be brought into our local health facilities, schools and businesses.
We cannot wait to welcome you back through the gates of our community garden when the time comes. Keep an eye out on our Twitter or Facebook to find out when PIER will reopen to the public.