UK: Garden center launches new community garden program

Squire’s Garden Centres has launched a new community gardening program, ‘Love Where You Live,’ which provides a £5,000 fund to support the valuable work of projects within communities close to its centers.

The initiative will seek to assist up to seven community gardening projects in local areas that exist to educate, grow produce, or provide health and wellbeing benefits through horticulture. Applications are invited from projects, initiatives, or organizations that bring communities together through their work. The awards will give financial support and practical advice so initiatives can make a significant step forward – or become a reality – within the communities they serve.

The £5,000 fund will be split into seven awards made up of three £1,000 awards and four awards of £500. Projects selected will be confirmed in mid-March and scheduled to run throughout spring and summer, culminating at the end of July 2024. Awards made will be in the form of Squire’s vouchers so recipients can choose plants, tools, and other gardening supplies according to their own needs. Projects will be selected from those close to Squire’s 16 garden centers so colleagues can offer appropriate support.

To be considered, projects must be within a 10-mile radius of a Squire’s Garden Centre and be able to demonstrate a clear benefit to the wider community. Greater weight will be given to projects that are accessible to anyone in the local area, but spaces benefiting a group with particular needs may be considered. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that the project will be well maintained beyond the award period. Interested organizations are invited to make applications via Squire’s website until February 29, 2024.

Sarah Squire, Chairman of Squire’s Garden Centres, comments: “Supporting the communities we serve has always been at the heart of our business. Squire’s is about bringing plants and people together, and our new award program, ‘Love Where You Live,’ will celebrate this.

“Being outside and gardening have long been a source of benefit to mental and physical wellbeing. There has certainly been an increase in communities coming together in recent years through horticulture as it provides a positive platform for good. We are confident our ‘Love Where You Live’ program will deliver much-needed assistance to local projects.

“These awards continue our support of our communities and will work alongside our long-standing and successful ‘Charity of the Year’ program, which sees each of our 16 centers working with one local charity for the duration of a year. In collaboration, our garden center teams and their nominated charities work together to raise funds through a series of initiatives ranging from raffles, collection boxes, and charity events as well as through physical challenges like climbing Snowdon or a charity run. Over the years, our teams have raised some fantastic amounts for their chosen charities, giving back to the community, had lots of fun and, more importantly, forged some long-standing relationships with our charity partners and the community.”