A weekly gardening group is being held in Broughon to inspire people to begin growing their own food and raise awareness about where their produce comes from.
Every Monday at 11am, a Grow Your Own Gardening group is held for the residents of Broughton. The group is hosted by Gina Hine, who works as the community services manager at the Energise Centre.
Grow Your Own Broughton launched when residents noticed the front of the centre wasn’t being utilised. They then came to the staff and put forward the idea of a gardening group.
Gina said: “It’s about spending more time outdoors and moving more, growing and eating fresh nutritious food, connecting with nature and each other and the act of growing something from scratch gives you a deep sense of achievement.”
Most of the group, which now has more than 20 regular members, tend to be in the older age range, so this group has the added benefit of getting them out of the house and socialise more, while also allowing them to benefit the community.
The landlords of the building donated £1,000 to get some of the resources they needed and the local Wicks store donated £100 of equipment to get started about two years ago.
The group also has a positive effect on the environment as plants improve the air and water quality. And some members have gone on to create plots of their own.
Gina said: “It’s really inspired people to start growing at home, myself included, and lots of other people from other services and just general people that come in that aren’t part of our group, because the centre is a clinic space that holds a GP mental health service and other NHS clinics.
“We get a lot of footfall. Not everybody comes to all of our health and wellbeing activities, but what it has done is make people notice the difference in the front of the centre and they have come inside to compliment us on the amazing work that has been done and have said it’s inspired them to grow things.”
With recent data showing that obesity in adults is currently at 66.3%, the gardening group and others like it help to teach the local community what is in the food that they are eating and how they can easily grow healthy, unprocessed food, which can help them to live a longer and happier life.
One Broughton resident spoke about the positive effect that gardening has had on her. She said: “I don’t have a green thumb, but you have really inspired me to start gardening at home. I got my husband to make me some planters and the whole garden now looks so much nicer.”
It’s also more cost-effective to grow vegetables and other produce rather than buying them.
Another group member said: “It feels great when we get to eat the things we have grown in the garden. You feel a real sense of achievement.”
The healthy living centre puts on many different groups for all ages and is open to all members of the public, to help Salford residents live happier and healthier lives. To keep up to date with upcoming events follow the centre on Facebook.
