It is well researched and documented that gardening is very good for your physical and mental health and can aid recovery from illness. In a community garden you get the added bonus of belonging to a like minded group of people, giving something back to the community, and the opportunity to make friends, learn from, teach, support and be supported by other people. It’s also fun, very rewarding and there is a great feel-good factor after working in the garden.

This guest blog is written by Lesley Morrison from the Secret Garden in Peebles

Thanks to support from the Outside the Box Garden Buddies project, especially Christine Ryder and Ruth Noble, our communities in Peebles and Innerleithen now have a very beautiful leaflet about community gardens and volunteering in them.

Tweedgreen and other local organisations have been working hard to develop local gardens which grow food and welcome local people into them to garden, learn, make friends and enjoy. Gardening and growing are important aspects of sustainable, environmentally aware communities and there’s a wealth of evidence for their beneficial effects on physical and mental health.

Not only has Outside the Box provided us with this lovely leaflet but they’ve been engaged with us in making the Secret Garden, Tweedgreen’s garden,  and other gardens  more dementia friendly with safer walkways, more stable furniture, high raised beds and clear signage.

The local Macmillan service already encourages people they are working with to visit the gardens and we will be distributing the leaflets to GP practices, dental surgeries, health premises, shops and businesses, and writing articles in the local press to spread the word about our local community gardens to as many people as possible.

On behalf of people in our communities living with dementia, thank you, Outside the Box!

Download the Community Gardens Flyer here.

Garden Buddies is part of our Food Buddies – click on the links to find out more.