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 started over 2 years ago 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.
When speaking about some of the aims of the 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”.
Gina stated that most of the group, which now has over 20 members who come each week, tend to be in the older age range, so this group allows them to get out of the house and socialise more, while also allowing them to benefit the community.
When starting the group, the landlords of the building donated £1000 to get some of the resources they needed and the local Wicks store donated them £100 worth of equipment to get started. The group also has a positive effect on the environment as plants improve the air and water quality.
Gina expressed how much of an impact the group has had: “It’s really inspired people to start growing at home, myself included. Also, 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 well-being activities, but what it has done is made 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 grow together 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 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.”
As well as being good for the community health-wise wise it’s also more cost-effective to grow vegetables and other produce rather than buying them each time they go to the supermarket. As there is currently a cost-of-living crisis affecting the public, groups like this teach them how to grow and sustain crops, so in the long run, they are not only healthier but have more money in their pocket.
A member of the group exclaimed how proud she was to eat the food she had grown. She 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 them on Facebook.
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