Growing a community gardening movement

Today, ahead of Scotland's biggest celebration of community gardening, bringing together volunteers from across the country who are passionate about improving and protecting the places they love, we hosted a breakfast briefing alongside the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in Stirling attended by 20 passionate individuals representing key organisations and growing groups from across Scotland.

We’ve enjoyed a long- standing partnership with the RHS, and this year celebrate 60 years of our Beautiful Scotland competition, which feeds entrants into the RHS Britain in Bloom UK Finals each year. Strengthening relationships this year we have been working alongside each other to explore synergies, shared visions, ambitions and opportunities, alongside the challenges of building a Scottish community gardening movement which celebrates and supports community gardening and its direct and indirect impacts across a range of policy objectives from areas as diverse as education health and the economy.

Over the past four months we have met key stakeholders across the county – many of whom attended the briefing in Stirling – to outline what a movement could work together to achieve, including influencing policy, ensuring better coordination and collaboration, supporting access to funding and helping make greater impacts in communities.

With the Scottish Government recently publishing its revised Climate Public Engagement Strategy, which now includes nature as a focus, the time is right for community gardening to feature prominently in national policy.

At the briefing event, Sarah Galvin, Head of National Community Programmes at the RHS set out the charity’s vision to build a UK-wide community gardening movement, helping groups to speak with one voice to bring about change they need to accelerate their work which includes working with Keep Scotland Beautiful to grow the existing partnership for the benefit of more groups.

She said: “Community gardens are essential infrastructure, they support people, planet and place, but the path to creating, maintaining and maximising a space is not always straightforward.  Our work with Keep Scotland Beautiful aims to create an inclusive and better-connected community gardening movement with the power to unlock green spaces to deliver climate action, strengthen communities, and improve lives.

“In practical terms this means equipping community gardeners and institutions with advice, training and support; convening community gardeners across the country; amplifying community gardening in national and regional policy and practice; and evidencing how community gardens deliver against multiple policy priorities across all UK nations.”

Through our Climate and Nature Friendly Communities Network, we support and celebrate the efforts of more than 200 community gardening and growing groups – all of which are successfully taking action to combat climate change, tackle litter and waste and restore nature. 

Each year, we see the hours that volunteers and local authorities commit to improving their own neighbourhoods.  But we have long been aware that there is a need to re-energise the community gardening movement in Scotland.

Our Head of Operations, Paul Wallace spoke about our vision to support a movement that will help shape and influence policy, improve connections strategically between community groups and those environmental charities working to support community gardening and growing activity.

He said, “As we celebrate 60 years of community gardening through the Beautiful Scotland competition, we have set out a huge ambition to widen participation, develop and grow skills across communities and strengthen existing networks. 

“We know those we work with want to share their brilliant skills, not only in gardening and connecting people but how they address many of the key concerns society faces. Many of our trained judges and assessors who visit community gardening groups for us across Scotland volunteer their time for this very reason.

“It is clear just how much people involved in community gardening gain in terms of their own health and wellbeing, but perhaps not so clear is just how much they also put back into the places they love, and how their actions protect nature, help combat climate change and generally improve the places we all care about.

“Alongside the RHS we want to ensure that everyone knows the important contribution community gardens have to growing cohesive communities and supporting other policy priorities.” 

The individuals attending the briefing agreed that there was broad support for creating a Scottish movement to prioritise community gardening.  The next step will be for a small group to be formed including representatives from many of the key organisations supporting community gardening in Scotland to move things forward with the wider sector - to address frustrations of the past, to coordinate the diverse interests and passions of the represented groups and to identify key policy asks for the future.

Do reach out to Katie O'Donnell, Juliette Camburn or Paul Wallace if you are interested in getting involved.