Age UK Berkshire

‘Green prescriptions’ – Age UK Berkshire and partners launch communal allotment

Organisation
Age UK Berkshire
Primary interest
Health

Age UK Berkshire is partnering with local organisations to help boost the mental health of local people with anxiety and depression during the pandemic and beyond.

Starting this spring, Age UK Berkshire will join forces with Involve Community Services, Twyford Parish Council and Twyford’s GP surgery to launch weekly gardening and growing sessions at the allotments near Twyford Station on Hurst Road. The events come as part of an effort to increase social prescribing options for ‘green prescriptions’, or non-medicinal healing via growing one’s own fruit and vegetables with a like-minded group.

The sessions will be led by experienced horticultural therapist Christina Hughes Nind. Her aim is for people with low to mid-level anxiety and depression to experience the benefit to their mood, stress levels, and general wellbeing that gardening is known to bring. Christina said ‘I am really looking forward to welcoming our first gardeners and to seeing the act of growing work its magic’.

We have all felt the benefit of being able to get outside during the Covid-19 lockdowns, and there is increasing research to show that spending time in nature is good for our mental health. The sessions will run every Thursday from this spring until October (Covid-19 rules permitting), from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm.

Christina will be assisted each week by Natalie Burton, who has a plot of her own at the Hurst Road site and a wealth of experience working with groups. Local Councillor Rohan Abeywardana has brought together a team for the project, including volunteers with plots on the Hurst Road site who have, like him, felt the benefits of active involvement in growing produce.

The plot will include a raised planter with plants to make tea from, sweet peas, edible flowers, and lots of fruit and veg. It is not just about growing plants – the social side is important too.

There will be a seating area for a socially-distanced tea break, and encouragement to connect with other local activities, including with other plot holders. The response to the project from other plot holders has been overwhelmingly positive and the team are eager for other residents, particularly those with defined mental health needs, to benefit from the friendly community atmosphere of the allotment site.

Further information