Alive has been running social and therapeutic horticulture (STH) sessions in care homes and community gardens across Bristol for over a decade.
Mixing gardening and green craft activities and with a strong focus on the social side of STH, we’ve witnessed first-hand the profound difference it can make to people’s lives.
All our sessions are dementia-friendly, with many tailored specifically for people living with dementia and older people.
Read on for an overview of all our gardening opportunities, and please contact us using the info at the foot of this page if you have further questions.
Attending a community gardening session
Alive run community gardening groups across Bristol. These include our two bespoke, custom-designed dementia-friendly allotments and an inclusive green social prescribing session in the centre of the city at The Wellspring Settlement.
Read on for more information about these.
Alive has two dementia-friendly allotments: one at Charlton Road Allotments in Brentry, North Bristol and most recently at Talbot Road Allotments in Brislington, South Bristol. We run therapeutic horticulture sessions there all year round for older people and people in the community living with dementia, as well as an intergenerational session for kids and older people.
The Wellspring Settlement community garden sessions are open to anyone living in Barton Hill and the surrounding area. They are suitable for adults of any age, ability and background.
STH sessions for care settings
Alive also help care home residents benefit from social and therapeutic gardening. Some ways we do so include organised trips to our allotment and our long-running Growing Support sessions, through which we bring gardening and green craft activities into care homes.
Helping you to set up community and dementia-friendly gardening
Alive can also support you to set up and run a community garden or gardening sessions at your care setting or community setting.
Our experienced facilitators can help you plan your garden and facilitate activities for your participants throughout the year.
We’ve also created a how to guide which can be downloaded here:
Designing a dementia-friendly community garden.
Support our community Gardening
There are many ways you could support Alive’s community gardening and STH work.
To find out more head to our Supporting Community Gardening page.
If you’d like to donate to our gardening sessions’ running costs, and by so doing support some of the more vulnerable people in our communities, please consider doing so using the buttons below.
Volunteer At Our Gardens and Care Home Sessions
Our gardening and green craft sessions simply would not be the success they are without the support of our amazing volunteers. For information on how to join the team please see our volunteering opportunities page or contact our volunteer coordinator Nadja at volunteer@aliveactivities.org.
Subscribe To Our Community Gardens Newsletter
The community gardens team send out an occasional newsletter. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, please sign up here.
For any further information about Community Gardening, or to talk to Alive about running a community garden at your care setting, please contact our Community Gardening Team at communitygardening@aliveactivities.org or call us on 07379498764.