Nature as therapy

Located in the heart of the Test Valley, the garden will be ideally located for the Andover Mind gardening club, which sees volunteers and service users from Andover, Romsey and the surrounding villages come together in nature, providing much needed respite and therapy for mental ill-health.

While Andover Mind are leading on this project, the intention is that the garden will provide a welcoming, relaxing and inspiring outdoor space for the whole community to benefit from, with plenty of opportunities for other local charities and organisations to get involved. 

Combining gardening and the environment to improve mental health in Hampshire.

The last few years with the covid pandemic and present financial crisis has emphasised how important nature is for our mental health and wellbeing. In addition, the extreme climate events across the world really highlight the importance of outdoor space and the necessity to work with nature to preserve the natural environment and support the health and wellbeing of all fauna and flora on earth, along with the need to stop exploiting the natural resources.

The Garden for Mind project will create a space that not only provides the opportunity to support mental health and wellbeing, but also to help educate on the climate change challenges and Biodiversity loss. 

How you can get involved

We’d love to hear from local, regional or national businesses and suppliers willing to donate their time , materials or money to this project. Likewise, if you are a keen gardener, landscaper, garden enthusiast or just someone who enjoys being outside, we’d love you to get involved and donate your time, or even better, help us with our fundraising mission. If you’d like to be a part of this exciting project, you can get in touch with our social value delivery manager, Libby Hillingby emailing libby.hilling@andovermind.org.uk

To find out more visit our website andovermind.org.uk/gardenformind