Thrive launches It’s Not Just Gardening campaign.
Gardening-for-health charity Thrive is launching a campaign to get more people into the garden to experience the health and wellbeing benefits it offers.
It’s Not Just Gardening is a week-long campaign running from Monday 1st to Friday 5 April promoting how gardening can help:
• Physical health
• Mental health
• Social engagement
• Learning of new skills
• Make you feel good
Drawing on evidence based on forty years of experience as a charity delivering therapeutic horticulture to clients with a wide range of long-term health conditions and disabilities, Thrive is encouraging more people to give gardening a go.
Thrive Chief Executive Kathryn Rossiter said: “Whatever your circumstances, gardening can have a very positive impact on your personal health and wellbeing. Physically, it can improve mobility and strength, while mentally it can provide a sense of achievement and purpose.
“Gardening is an amazing learning opportunity, offering ever-changing challenges that can suit all ranges of experience or none, boosting confidence and self-esteem.
“And gardening can be a socially engaging activity, particularly in community gardening or therapeutic gardening settings. In the latter, our Horticultural Therapists tailor sessions to promote interaction and build social skills.”
The campaign will feature films and web content outlining each of the key benefits, featuring a number of Thrive Ambassadors, including This Morning gardener David Domoney, BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Mark Lane and gardening blogger and vlogger Annabelle Padwick.
Thrive, which works with client gardeners aged from 14 to 87, will also feature some of them explaining how they have benefited from gardening.
Running as Spring arrives, It’s Not Just Gardening will also give people tips to make gardening easier. Plus, there’s the chance to grow Thrive’s fortieth anniversary flower, a beautiful ruby Antirrhinum majus or Snapdragon, and links to more gardening information and advice. You can also get involved by staging a garden party, inviting family and friends to share the joys of their gardens while raising funds for Thrive.
Find out more here and look out for the hashtag #getgardening.
