LET IT GROW!

This category includes charities concerned especially with gardens – and the extraordinary amount of good they can do. This includes the well-known therapeutic benefits of gardens and gardening, with respect to our physical, mental and spiritual well-being. But gardens are also vitally important havens for wildlife – indeed, the Office for National Statistics recently reported that the private gardens of England, alone, comprise more than 4.5 times the total area of all our national nature reserves, combined. So, actively promoting the encouragement of wildlife, within both private and public gardens, can surely have a highly significant impact on biodiversity – and the healing power of human contact with nature.

  • In the listings below, I give a brief description of each charity in my Let it Grow category, plus a link to their website, for further information.

  • If you decide to hire me, for any of my photography-based services, you may choose Let it Grow! as your Charity Preference.

  • This means that when you make payment, half my net income from the work I undertake for you will be divided between the charities listed below.

  • Of course, you may also donate directly to any of these charities. Just click on the donations button, which opens the charity’s fundraising page.

THRIVE

Thrive is the UK’s leading gardening for health charity, dedicated and passionate about the health benefits that gardening, horticulture and spending time in nature can bring. Thrive’s vision is that people living with a disability or ill-health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged, or vulnerable, should be actively encouraged to use gardening as part of their personal health and wellbeing management – and should be able to access therapeutic gardening and horticulture programmes, wherever they live.

GREENFINGERS CHARITY

Greenfingers Charity is dedicated to supporting children who spend time in hospices around the UK. It’s aim is to create inspiring gardens for them and their families to relax in and benefit from. The charity works to create beautiful, well-designed outdoor spaces for children to enjoy with their family, friends and siblings, whether through play and fun, or therapeutic rest and relaxation. Greenfingers Charity is driven by the belief that time spent outdoors, away from the bedside, can offer children and families under considerable stress a vital opportunity to embrace the benefits of being in the fresh air and engaging with the natural environment.

WILDLIFE GARDENING FORUM

There are some 23 million private gardens in the UK.  In England alone, the total area of our gardens, at 1.11 million acres, is four and a half times that of all our 224 national nature reserves, combined! The Wildlife Gardening Forum works to make everyone more aware of the importance of our gardens for wildlife, people and society and to help and encourage people to make their gardens as wildlife friendly as they can possibly be.  Its aims include:

  • Promoting the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of gardens and their biological diversity.

  • Advancing public understanding of need to conserve, protect and improve the biodiversity of private gardens and the human health benefits of doing so.

  • Providing impartial evidence-based information and advice on wildlife gardening. 

PLEASE NOTE: An online donations facility for the Wildlife Gardening Forum is currently in preparation and will be made available soon, via they charity’s website.

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. Its mission to inspire a passion for gardening and growing plants and to promote the value of gardens, demonstrating how gardening is good for us and explaining the vital role that plants and gardens play in our lives. For more than two centuries, the RHS has been the passionate force at the heart of horticulture, and today it inspire millions of people to get involved in gardening. The RHS is also deeply committed to a long-term sustainability strategy, which includes a new nationwide Planet-Friendly Gardening Campaign. Within the decade, the RHS aims to become net positive for nature and for people, and to encourage and enable the gardening public to do the same.

GARDENING WITH DISABILITIES TRUST

Gardening with Disabilities Trust aims to help people back into gardening in spite of disability – giving out grants so that people can adapt their gardens and make gardening possible. Clients report that this practical support can change their lives, enhance their well-being and help them defy their disability. This may involve such items as accessibility ramps, raised beds, handrails on steps, and specially designed garden tools. The charity is entirely staffed by volunteers. Based in Kent, the Garden of England, it award grants to individuals and groups across the UK, and support people with all kinds of mental and physical challenges.

HORATIO’S GARDEN

Horatio’s Garden is a national charity creating and nurturing beautiful gardens in NHS spinal injury centres to support everyone affected by spinal injury. Its aim is to grow thriving communities to support patients, their families and friends facing long stays in NHS hospitals. Leading landscape designers create these stunning sanctuaries, working in collaboration with prominent architects to design garden rooms ensuring the space can be used all year round. The gardens become an integral part of people’s lives throughout their time in hospital.