This year’s Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health is subtitled ‘Bring me Sunshine!’ and celebrates the joy of gardens. When the world around us can sometimes be overwhelming there is always solace, calm, friendship, community and joy to be found in a garden, whether it belongs to you or someone else. Packed full of stories from our garden owners and our beneficiaries, it takes you from the joy of creating a garden for RHS Chelsea to the calm, and happiness, that a community garden provides for so many. We hope you enjoy our interactive digital book and are able to visit a National Garden Scheme garden and experience the joy first hand this year too!
To mark Community Gardens Week (1-7 April) the National Garden Scheme is delighted to announce the distribution of £247,502 of funding to 95 community garden projects across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Danny Clarke – aka The Black Gardener – and National Garden Scheme Ambassador said: “Community projects introduce new audiences to the huge benefits that gardens and gardening bring to their health and wellbeing and to the environment and communities around them.”
Five new gardens and health projects led by community nurses have started their year-long innovation programme as part of the NGS Elsie Wagg Innovation Scholarship, a unique partnership between the QNI and the National Garden Scheme created to show how nurses working in community settings can use the power of gardens and garden visiting to improve people’s health.
What started as a record of the heightened awareness of gardens as we headed out of the pandemic in 2021, has become an increasingly significant annual publication and a highlight of our Gardens and Health Week each May. You can view the last three editions of our Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health here.
A new report published by the National Garden Scheme, confirms the important health benefits that visiting a garden in the darkest days of winter can provide. With research conducted across National Garden Scheme gardens that open in both the winter and the summer, our survey respondents felt that winter is the perfect time to observe the emergence of new growth, be surrounded by nature and to enjoy a sense of hope as spring returns.
Ponthafren applied for a Community Garden Grant to bring the garden back to it’s former glory after it fell into disrepair during Covid 19
Killicomaine residents used a Community Garden Grant to create a safe and welcoming community space & outdoor kitchen.
Homerton University Hospital applied for a Community Garden Grant to create a green hub for patients, staff and the community.
A number of our garden owners have generously shared their stories about the powerful effects that gardening can have in helping to manage Parkinson’s. We are hugely grateful to the team at Parkinson’s UK for helping to share these inspiring stories with a wider audience through the creation of some powerful and thought-provoking short films like this one filmed in Hampshire this summer.
A cancer diagnosis changed Lara Honnor’s life. Deciding that cancer had messed with the wrong girl she bought a puppy and turned to nature and horticulture and now opens two gardens for the National Garden Scheme, Skool Beanz Childrens’ Allotment and The Kitchen Garden in Martock Workspace both in Somerset.
It was while awaiting her post cancer surgery histology results at the NGS Macmillan Centre in Chesterfield that Maggie Porteous decided to open her garden in the Peak District for the National Garden Scheme.
National Garden Scheme funding of ABF The Soldiers’ Charity provides support to soldiers, veterans and their families through a variety of projects including promoting physical and mental wellbeing through the green environment, horticultural therapy and training.
Owned and designed by registered nutritionist Dr Trevor George, his Surrey garden is packed with edible plants – for growing, cooking, preserving, processing and researching what happens to our bodies when we eat them.
Dr John Butcher, teaching fellow in Neuroscience at Aston University and garden opener for the National Garden Scheme shares his expert view on the health benefits of gardens and gardening.
18 year-old Pia found support, solace and inspiration at Horatio’s Garden, a charity supported by the National Garden Scheme, after a spinal legion threatened to change her life.
Each year the National Garden Scheme celebrates all that’s good about gardens and encourages everyone to embrace the positivity of green spaces as part of our annual Gardens and Health Week. Open our interactive, Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health and discover the benefits to your health and wellbeing – and to nature – that gardens, gardening and green spaces bring with stories told through our garden owners, beneficiaries and health experts.
Registered blind, Julie Scarle is opening her garden for the first time this year. She tells us what it’s like gardening with a sensory impairment.
The Growing Space Garden in Gwent is run by volunteers who gain a sense of community, happiness and pride through gardening. And on 2 July they open their gates to National Garden Scheme visitors.
This year, a collaboration between the National Garden Scheme, one of its beneficiaries Hospice UK, and a garden that opens for the scheme is set to create a sunflower filled summer sure to create a smile.
Inspired by his parents passion for gardening, John Edwards has been a keen gardener since childhood. Today, despite having to use a mobility scooter, he’s out in all weathers and this July opens for the National Garden Scheme.
The gloriously scented and colourful combination of lavender and roses are cornerstones of many English gardens. Revered for their fragrance, both plants have ancient origins and medicinal properties.
Royal Trinity Hospice is one of many that open their garden for the National Garden Scheme each year, sharing the peace and tranquility of their very special spaces. This lovely film illustrates the value that gardens can bring to everyone.
Our 2022 interactive, digital booklet The Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health, is packed with stories and case studies from our Ambassadors, garden owners, garden visitors and beneficiaries illustrating just how good gardens are for your health.
The National Garden Scheme has been opening gardens to raise funds for nursing and health charities since 1927. More recently, as part of the Gardens And Health initiative, garden owners have hosted visits from service users and staff of those charities that benefit from annual donations.
Horatio’s Garden is one of the National Garden Scheme’s Gardens and Health beneficiaries. Supported since 2015 we have donated over £400,000 and this year the charity is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. Here’s their story.
One of our Gardens and Health beneficiaries is Maggie’s. Built alongside NHS hospitals, their centres are uplifting places – together we take a brief look at the rise and fall of gardens for health in history.
Award-winning garden designer, and National Garden Scheme garden opener, Selina Botham takes us through her philosophy of designing gardens for people as well as wildlife.
Maggie’s Chief Executive, Dame Laura Lee talks about why gardens are so important to their centres and the impact they have on people with cancer.
Find out more about the importance of gardens for patients, staff, volunteers, family and friends at Marie Curie hospices, some of which open for the National Garden Scheme.
Four garden owners with Parkinson’s, who open for the National Garden Scheme, attribute the physical act of gardening as an important part of managing their symptoms.
Macmillan’s cancer voices community share what gardens mean to them and how gardens, and gardening, have supported their wellbeing throughout their cancer experience.
We caught up with some of the plot holders at the Paddock Allotments ahead of their opening for the National Garden Scheme to find out more about what makes being a plot holder special.
Impressed by the care her mum received from Macmillan nurses, Jenny wanted to give something back and now raises money through opening her garden for the National Garden Scheme.
As part of our Gardens & Health Programme we offer free garden visits for the service users linked to our beneficiary charities. Offering a few hours respite in a beautiful garden with a cup of tea, piece of cake and good company really can help lift the spirits.
Japanese gardens lend themselves to the same positive health benefits that we experience by simply spending time in any natural environment. We know we feel good when we’re in a Japanese garden. But why? We discover the secrets of their design.
With nine WWT wetlands centres that have National Garden Scheme gardens close by why not combine a visit to both while you’re out and about this summer. Soak up some blue and green prescriptions and reap the wellbeing rewards!
Referring patients to gardening projects is now a key part of Social Prescribing and one GP, Dr Richard Claxton, is a champion of Green Therapy linking patients with gardens and green spaces to help with a wide range of problems.
Garden designer, writer, presenter and National Garden Scheme Trustee, Arit Anderson, looks at the importance of sustainability in the way we live and garden. Discover more along with some top tips for gardening more sustainably too.
Before the pandemic, having a garden was associated with better health and wellbeing, with that in mind, here are five ways of using your garden that research suggests can improve your mental health.
Our report illustrates the vital role that gardens and outdoor spaces played – and continue to play – in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the nation during lockdown. The report confirms that the power of gardens to do good has never been more important.
Diagnosed with breast cancer at 31, Lara now attributes her deep affection for nature and gardening to the treatments she underwent
Our special garden meditation helps you find peace, calm and a sense of wellbeing whether in your garden or home
As gardeners we can play our part in helping reverse the effects of climate change and the global decline in biodiversity
For over 40 years a village in Buckinghamshire has been opening its gardens for the National Garden Scheme, not only raising funds for our beneficiaries but providing wonderful health benefits for all involved
Inspired by her daughter’s writing and images of the places she had visited, Amanda Goode has created a garden as a testament to her daughter’s life
The National Garden Scheme is working in partnership with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) to promote a wider understanding of the importance of wetlands, water and wet spaces in nature and in our gardens for the health of the environment and our own well-being.
Daily fresh air is invaluable right now. The benefits of trees and woods on our mental and physical health are seemingly limitless – time spent in woodland is never wasted – and could even give you more than just a spring in your step
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