In 2022, the RHS partnered with the NHS trust at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL), to co-create its first wellbeing garden for hospital staff affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The aim of the project was to create a vital hub for NHS staff, patients and the wider community to come together and connect through nature.

How the UHL Wellbeing Garden began

During the pandemic, Maria Leong, an anaesthetist registrar at UHL, contacted the RHS requesting support to develop a garden, to enable NHS staff to take a break from their intense workloads – a space to breathe and to reflect and remember colleagues they had lost to Covid-19.

Maria explains, “For patients and their relatives, it will be a chance to escape the clinical environment and talk with their loved ones. We are working on involving lots of different patient groups, such as paediatric patients, and those with chronic pain and dementia. The path will also be able to accommodate hospital beds, enabling staff to bring stable but critically ill patients outside to feel fresh air, sunshine and be in a green space.”

Leading garden designer Adam Frost, who is passionate about celebrating our NHS heroes, designed the scheme.

The RHS is building community partnerships over three years to engage, train and upskill local volunteers and staff to look after the garden into the future. This is the first NHS wellbeing garden, and other regional hubs are in development. The RHS wants the gardens created to be hopeful places that have a transformational impact on the wellbeing of the communities they sit within.

Impact of the wellbeing garden so far

Our Community Outreach team have forged close partnerships with many local organisations to develop an inclusive wellbeing programme and promote the garden as a safe, peaceful and tranquil local asset for everyone to use. There is a weekly club in the hospital garden where staff and patients are invited to switch off, learn a new skill and meet new people in a safe space, where activities include everything from yoga, meditation and wellbeing walks to dried flowers, houseplant care and mosaic making. There are also sessions for adults with additional needs, patient and carer support groups such as a dementia group and a perinatal group.

We work with Mencap, a volunteer-run charity run by and for people with a learning disability, their families and carers, to support around 50 adults with additional needs, helping to build their confidence with gardening in their local green spaces and at their social club garden. Sessions have included tasting herbs, decorating pots and sowing their favourite herb seeds; and starting to tidy up their own garden.

Building a national wellbeing gardens network

Our vision is to create a UK-wide network of community wellbeing gardens across the country. This will be a green web of welcoming, safe, neutral, accessible and inclusive spaces – social hubs where plants, skills, ideas, kindness and support are shared. Our RHS wellbeing gardens initiative is being piloted at University Hospital Lewisham with the aim of rolling out the model and benefits to healthcare sites across the country. 

The wider network will be informed by learnings from Lewisham Hospital Garden and will also be designed by our RHS Wellbeing Gardens Ambassador, Adam Frost. We are currently working with healthcare trusts and community organisations to deliver two more wellbeing gardens at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds and Colchester Hospital in Essex. There is potential to expand the programme in future years.

Gardening for wellbeing is a key focus for the RHS. We are conducting practical scientific research into the environmental and social benefits of gardens and plants, and raising the profile of gardens and gardening to support people’s wellbeing through strong links to government, the horticultural industry and our community partners.