Government and local authorities should find more ways to integrate community gardening initiatives into national and regional plans and services, says the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
The charity’s new report, Space to grow: realising the potential of the community gardening movement, identifies the benefits of bringing diverse communities together through horticulture and gardening, including physical and mental wellbeing.
With a foreword by RHS director general Clare Matterson, a community gardener herself in East Suffolk, the report estimates that 2.5 million adults have already gardened in their communities in the past three years, while 14.7 million are interested in joining community gardening initiatives. With 59% of such communities based on land owned by local authorities, and 76% of this in urban areas, councils are ideally placed to support initiatives. However, just…