Tips and inspiration
- Do you want to garden but don’t have much outdoor space at home? Or maybe it feels overwhelming to do it by yourself? Community gardens could be just what you need. In these shared gardens, you can team up with neighbours to grow food and care for green spaces.
- Check community notice boards in parks and libraries or use the RHS or Good to Grow maps to find community gardens near you. Your council’s website may also list local volunteer opportunities.
- You don’t have to be a seasoned grower to get involved, community gardens are the best place to get started if you’re a total beginner.
- Community gardens build climate resilience in your neighbourhood in many ways. They help keep cities cool amid rising temperatures, reduce the impact of floods by absorbing rainwater and increase food security for your community.
Why is this action beneficial?
Strengthen community
Joining a community garden is a great way to get to know your neighbours and to make friends. These collaborative projects rely on group decision-making and teamwork, fostering a sense of connection and belonging. Plus, by growing food you increase your community’s access to fresh produce without the food miles.
Protect nature
By helping nurture a garden, you provide a space for nature to thrive in built-up areas, providing habitats for birds, bees and other insects. Plus, community gardens often transform neglected land, using gardening techniques to restore and improve soil health.
Learn a new skill
By teaming up with seasoned gardeners, you’ll learn about when to plant and harvest different foods, what grows well together, the importance of healthy soil and how to attract pollinators.
Improve health
As well as being great exercise, community gardening also boosts your mood and eases climate anxiety by connecting you with nature and your neighbours. By providing shade and greenery, you’ll also help to cool cities, helping to protect vulnerable people from extreme heat driven by climate change.
Reduce pollution
Having more greenspaces in our cities improves air quality helping us breathe easier.
Save money
Gardening can be a pricy hobby especially if you’re starting from scratch on your own. With a community garden all the tools, compost and seeds are provided by local funding or crowdfunding. You’ll also get to take home your share of the harvest, meaning you’ll be saving money on your food bills.
Beta
We’re still developing the Find Your Climate Action tool. Watch this space for updates and share your feedback with us to help improve it.
More ways to get involved
Fixing Our Broken Planet
The Find Your Climate Action tool is part of our Fixing Our Broken Planet programme, which is designed to inspire people to take action to help the planet. The programme also includes a new gallery as well as experiences and events.
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