Space to Grow - RHS report on community gardens

In October, the Royal Horticultural Society published Space to Grow, its report into Community Gardening in the UK. Supporting the work of RGWN, the authors noted that regional groups need to work collaboratively to facilitate networking and skills-sharing opportunities, and advocate for community gardening.

This research is based on findings involving over 2000 UK community garden groups. The article reported that a lot of people love being part of a community garden, and that community gardens ‘demonstrate remarkable creativity and resilience, achieving a lot with very little resource’ But it also found that there is a big question mark over the sustainability of many community gardening groups, with more than half of them nationally being worried about their future. The RHS says this is something which needs attention from local and national government and from the National Health Service. RGWN will continue doing all that we can to make the case for sustained support for this natural health service.

Photo credit: Charlotte Allchin