Project Giving Back

Hello to all of our followers! 👋 There’s a lot more of you here lately (welcome!), so we thought it would be the perfect time to reintroduce ourselves. 🌿 Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making scheme that funds gardens for good causes at @the_rhs Chelsea Flower Show. PGB provides an incredible opportunity for charities to raise awareness and support of their work at the world’s most famous horticulture event. 🌿 This year we are supporting 15 gardens that celebrate and draw attention to the work of charitable organisations, community interest groups, and educational programmes across the UK. 🌿All of the gardens we support at RHS Chelsea Flower Show are relocated or repurposed after the show to live on as a lasting legacy for the good causes they are inspired by. Some can be publicly visited, whle others live on at schools and other private locations as learning tools for a future generation of gardeners. We’re grateful for all of you following, and can’t wait to see some of you at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show next week! PS, don’t forget to enter our Giveaway for a Good Cause for the chance to win £1000 to donate to charity. * closes Saturday 25th June. See our feed for details #gardensforgoodcauses #rhschelseaflowershow

City-born Comedian @michaelakadiri left feeling inspired to reconnect with nature after visiting the Project Giving Back gardens for good causes! Did we manage to inspire any of you, too? 🫶 🌿 The concept and message of the @wateraid garden stood out for Michael, being focused on sustainable water management and exploring the challenges presented by our ever changing climate. The garden is cleverly crafted with an array of plant species to deal with varying amounts of rainfall. Sustainable facts about the garden: 1️⃣ The garden used screw piles, instead of virgin concrete at the show. 2️⃣ Every surface from the open metal decking to the pavilion is permeable, allowing water to pass through. 3️⃣ Elements of the techniques and planting schemes could also be implemented at home! #gardensforgoodcauses #projectgivingback #RHSChelsea #RHSChelseaflowershow #chelseaflowershow

What a pleasure to host world renowned explorer, writer, and photographer Levison Wood at his first ever RHS Chelsea Flower Show! Blown away by the diversity of the gardens, @levison.wood shares his highlights: 🌿 The edible @bowelresearchuk Microbiome garden, designed by @sidhillecogardens and @chrishullgardens . Focused on health, for people, plants and all life, the garden takes inspiration from human cultures that have tended thriving ecosystems for their nourishment. 🌿 The @size_of_wales Garden, inspired by the abundance and diversity of life that occurs in the tropical forests of the world, and the work that Size of Wales are doing to prevent the tragedy of its destruction. Fun fact - designed by @propagatingdan , this garden boasts more than 300 flower species! 🤯 #RHSChelseaflowershow #RHSChelsea #projectgivingback #gardensforgoodcauses

Child Counsellor and Sunday Times bestselling author Kate Silverton chats with us about the importance of nature for our wellbeing, children’s mental health, and her favourite #gardensforgoodcauses , including the @freedomfromtorture garden, the @wchildcancer garden, and the @panathlonchallenge garden! 💚 🌿 @katesilverton ’s eye was caught particularly by the @bowelresearchuk Microbiome garden, designed by @sidhillecogardens and @chrishullgardens . Drawing inspiration from medical and botanical research, the garden includes an edible meadow and aims to inspire people to rewild their diets, gardens and their relationship with the land. Thank you for visiting @project.giving.back ! 🫶 #rhschelsea #rhschelseaflowershow #chelseaflowershow #projectgivingback #gardensforgoodcauses #horticulture #katesilverton #childsmentalhealth #mentalwellbeing

We were lucky enough to chat with Comedian, mental health advocate, and founder of @frazzledcafeuk Ruby Wax, who spent the day with Project Giving Back exploring our gardens for good causes. 🌿 Designed by @tomstuartsmith , @rubywax enjoyed the wildness of the @nationalgardenscheme garden with it’s natural and untamed appearance in line with its ‘edge of woodland’ theme. The relocated garden is to form part of a new garden of a new Maggie’s Centre at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. Ruby’s book ‘I’m not as well as I thought I was’ and 2024 tour tickets are available to buy via the link in her bio. 💚 #rhschelseaflowershow #chelseaflowershow #gardensforgoodcauses #projectgivingback #rubywax #imnotaswellasithoughtiwas #rhschelsea #horticulture #nationalgardenscheme #tomstuartsmith #addenbrookes

Today marks the one-year anniversary of our Rare Space Garden opening at @exburygardens !   Watch this video produced by @project.giving.back , who sponsored our garden for the 2023 @the_rhs Chelsea Flower Show and its relocation to Exbury Gardens in the New Forest.   Filmed by @matt_gwell , it features our then chief executive Theresa Dauncey, dementia expert, Professor Nick Fox, @raredementiasupport members Helena and David Clarke, and garden designer @charliehawkes_ . They discuss the importance of the garden and its positive impact on people living with rare forms of dementia.   Charlie created this award-winning garden with input from members of Rare Dementia Support, particularly those living with posterior cortical atrophy (#PCA ), a condition that affects visual and spatial awareness.   The garden offers a balance between exploration and calm navigation, fostering autonomy and hope for people affected by these conditions.   Now is a great time to enjoy the summer at Exbury and visit the garden before it makes its permanent move to the world’s first specialist centre for people with rare forms of dementia in 2025 - the Rare Dementia Support Centre, part of the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London’s Woburn Square.   Learn about the garden by using the link in the bio   #RareSpaceGarden #GardensForGoodCauses #ProjectGivingBack #AllAboutPlants #PosteriorCorticalAtrophy #ExburyGardens #RHSChelsea #RHSChelseaFlowerShow #DementiaAwareness #RareDementiaSupport

Can @fehintibalogun really be a ‘bad gardener’ if he grows strawberries, dandelions, sage, and thyme? We don’t think so! 😁🪴 Actor and campaigner Fehinti Balogun spent some time with us at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show discovering our gardens for good causes. Here he shares his highlights. 🌿 @planetgoodearth Garden, showcasing Chelsea’s first ever skate ramp carefully made with granite, as well as being a communal space for get-togethers and workshops, supporting physical activity, positive relationships in a natural and engaging setting. Designed by @betongpark_ltd and @urban.organic , this garden is to be relocated to Hereford Community skate park. 🌿 The @wateraid garden, which explores the challenges presented by an ever-changing climate. Designed by @tommasseyuk and @studioweave 🌿 The @musculardystrophyuk Forest Bathing garden, which seeks to showcase how an immersive, yet accessible garden can offer a place of refuge to patients, their families, and clinicians at the time of diagnosis and beyond. Thank you @fehintibalogun for visiting Project Giving Back and being such a wonderful guest. 💚 PS - Fehinti stars in a new drama series ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, available to watch now on Prime Video. 🎥 #gardensforgoodcauses #projectgivingback #fehintibalogun #rhschelseaflowershow #chelseaflowershow #rhschelsea #agentlemaninmoscow

🌿 The WaterAid Garden has a new home! 🌿 Our gold medal-winning garden from this year’s @the_rhs Chelsea Flower Show is moving to the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester, opened as a sky park by the @nationaltrust in 2022. Celebrating water as our most precious resource, the garden was co-designed by architect Je Ahn (@studioweave ) and landscape designer @tommasseyuk . The stunning garden and its relocation have been made possible by support from @project.giving.back , and with the help of @arupgroup , @cakeindustries , @lalandscapes , @sebastiancoxltd , @surreyironcraft , and @twelvearchitects . In its new home, The WaterAid Garden will help transform the historic steel viaduct into a beautiful sky park in the heart of the city. Free to access all year round, the park provides vital green space and helps preserve Manchester’s industrial heritage. With a rainwater harvesting pavilion at its centre, we hope The WaterAid Garden will inspire even more visitors to use water wisely when it opens to the public in 2025. #RHSChelsea #GardensForGoodCauses #UrbanGardening #UrbanGreenSpace #RainwaterHarvesting #Manchester #WaterAid #NationalTrust

Edible skatepark landscapes are emerging as vibrant horticultural youth hubs that have the potential to transform neglected communities across the UK. The Planet Good Earth Garden is a pioneering skateable exhibit that links skateboarding and community gardening to support mental health and promote environmental action. “Community can really be grown through skating and the fact people come to gather in one space and learn from one another is quite open in that sense really, theres never any rules about what you should and shouldn’t be, you can turn up and you can have barely any equipment or no equipment and people will still help you out and get your rolling, and thats a pretty good example of how supportive and welcoming that space can be, that skateboarders can have.” Sam Elstub, Landscape Architect, Betongpark #gardensforgoodcauses #rhschelsea #rhschelseaflowershow

Throw Bee Balls at the garden and see what sticks - sounds like sound gardening advice to us!  Our wonderful PGB guest actress Sally Phillips shares why the National Autistic Society and Pulp Friction gardens meant to much to her.   🌿 Designed by Will and Tin-Tin from @dutchlandscapearchitects , the @pulpfrictioncic Growing Skills garden is a celebration of the skill, determination and passion of the Pulp Friction Members.  The garden is undergoing relocation to Stockhill Fire Station in Nottingham and will be used as a safe, welcoming and secure community garden by Pulp Friction, the local community and firefighters suffering from psychological stress. 🌿 Highlighting a strategy called ‘masking’ – a potentially draining process involving consciously or unconsciously hiding autistic characteristics in order to fit in - the @nationalautisticsociety garden is designed to encapsulate an autistic person’s everyday experience of the world, using walls of cork to create a series of spaces dedicated to different types of social interaction - at work, with friends and family, with partners, and with ourselves.  It was carefully designed by @sophieparmenterstudio and @didomilnecollaborates . 🌿 Sally was also impressed with the edible @bowelresearchuk Microbiome Garden, aiming to inspire people to rewild their diets, gardens and their relationship with the land, designed by @sidhillecogardens and @chrishullgardens . Thank you @Sallysmack for joining us and sharing your insights on our #gardensforgoodcauses ! #projectgivingback #sallyphillips #rhschelsea #chelseaflowershow #rhschelseaflowershow

Here is our wonderful and dedicated PGB team all together, taken by @britt.willoughby.photography at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024. 📸 We enjoyed hosting on our Project Giving Back stand this year (beautifully designed by @houseninedesign ) and providing a peaceful haven for you all. 🌿 From left to right: Clare - PR & Comms Isabella - Project & Production Lead Elisa - Finance & Compliance Director Hattie - CEO Chantelle - Social Media & Production Executive Jennie - PR & Comms #rhschelseaflowershow #chelseaflowershow #rhschelsea #gardensforgoodcauses #projectgivingback

Leanne Pero - multi-award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, author, model and breast cancer survivor - shares her favourites from the PGB funded gardens this year. 🌿 The Bowel Research UK, designed by @sidhillecogardens and @chrishullgardens , particularly resonated with her and the communities she works with. 🌿 Terrence Higgins Trust garden designed by @matthewchildsdesign 🌿 The WaterAid Garden, designed by @tommassey and @studioweave Founder of @blackwomenrisinguk , Leanne was very recently awarded an MBE for her crucial and dedicated work in empowering women of colour through every step of their cancer journey. Thank you for spending the day with us, @leanneperoofficial ! 🌿 #gardensforgoodcauses #projectgivingback #rhschelsea #rhschelseaflowershow