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Mind at the Chelsea Flower Show 2022

This year, we'll be featuring a garden at the Royal Horticulture Society's Chelsea Flower Show 24 - 28 May 2022. Learn more about our garden and how connecting with each other, especially in nature, can help our mental health. 

The Mind Garden is about inspiring us to connect with each other for our mental health. When you’re struggling with your mental health, sharing what you’re going through can change everything.

It's designed by eight-time RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner Andy Sturgeon. Gardens have been a refuge for Andy during difficult periods in his own life. So, for The Mind Garden, he's created a place where others can connect, share experiences and find comfort together.

After the Chelsea Flower Show has ended, we’ll transport The Mind Garden to one or more of our local Minds across England and Wales. So people will be able to support each other in The Mind Garden for many years to come.

The Mind Garden design

At its highest point, a circular seating area creates a sanctuary for conversation. Set within curved clay-rendered walls, it’s a place to sit side-by-side and share experiences and advice, surrounded by meadow-like spaces and calming birch trees. A gravel path then arcs down to a lower level, bringing people together before the garden opens out before them. In this way, the design reflects how it can feel to open up to others about your mental health. First, it brings people closer, then there is a sense of release and of possibility.

Plant List

Betula nigra

Chionanthus virginicus
Rosa glauca
Euonymus alatus

Laserpitium siler
Camassia caerulea
Tulips sp
Sesleria autumnalis
Stipa gigantea
Salvia sp
Asphodeline lutea
Achillea sp
Centranthus ruber
Geranium sp
Artemisia ‘Valerie Finnis’
Onopordum acanthium
Tiarella sp
Verbascum phoenicium ‘Violetta’
Gladiolus communist subsp byzantinus
Lillium martagon
Iris x hollandica
Eremurus robustus
Allium fistolosa
Deschampsia
Dryopteris wallichiana
Rubus cockburnianus
Primula sp
Iris laevigata
Elegia tectorum
Juncus effusus
Rodgersia aesculifolia
Equisetum Hyemale
Hesperis matronalis
Trollius sp
Anemanthele lessoniana
Inula magnifica
Actaea simplex ‘Brunette’
Aruncus ‘Horatio’
Thalictrum ‘Elin’
Geum rivale
Silene flos-cuculi
Iris sibirica
Iris foetidissima
Osmunda regalis

Gardening and mental health

Spending time in green space or bringing nature into our everyday life can benefit our mental and physical wellbeing. For example, doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors or being around animals can have many positive effects, such as:

  • Improving mood
  • Reducing feelings of stress or anger
  • Improving your physical health
  • Reducing feelings of loneliness
  • Helping you feel more connected to nature

Ecotherapy

Find out what ecotherapy is and how you can get involved.

Find out more

Nature and wellbeing

Find out how spending time in nature can help your mental health.

Find out more

Ecotherapy services available at local Minds

  • Green Minds at Brecon & District Mind
  • Allotment group at Mind in Croydon
  • Wilderness walks with mindfulness at West Sussex Mind
  • Let's Grow community allotment at West Kent Mind
  • Green Care at Suffolk Mind
  • Gardening projects as part of wellbeing activities at Mind in Haringey
  • Allotment gardening group in Wellington at Mind in Somerset
  • Quantock Hills Working Well Groups at Mind in Somerset
  • Vanessa gardening project in Yeovil at Mind in Somerset
  • Ecominds at Middlesborough & Stockton Mind
  • Well Grounded at Mind in Somerset

For young people:

  • Ecotherapy programme working with schools at Dorset Mind
  • Happy Project at Newport Mind Association
  • Creative Spaces at Solihull Mind
  • Ecominds at Middlesbrough & Stockton Mind
  • Greenlinks at Bath Mind
  • Allotment and gardening groups at Cornwall Mind
  • Eco wellbeing groups at Hillingdon Mind
  • Mayfield Nurseries at Solent Mind
  • Gardening peer support project at Mind in Havering
  • Growth Project at Rochdale & District Mind
  • Horticulture at Norfolk and Waveney Mind
  • Gardening peer support group at Mind in Lewisham

Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy is a formal type of treatment that involves doing outdoor activities in nature.

To find an ecotherapy programme in your area:

  • Contact your local Mind to ask if they run any ecotherapy programmes you could join. You can find your nearest local Mind on our online search page.
  • Explore what different organisations offer. See our useful contacts for details.
  • Ask your GP. They might be able to refer you to a local programme - sometimes called 'social prescribing' or 'green prescribing'. See our page on talking to your GP about your mental health for tips.

We have listed local Minds that provide ecotherapy and other nature-based support programmes at the bottom of this section.

Nam commodo suscipit quam. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus

Peer support

Peer support is when people use their own experiences to help each other. Through The Mind Garden, we hope many more people will discover the power of peer support and understand for themselves how it can help connections with others to bloom. 

We can also find peer support at dozens of our local Minds. Many peer support groups meet outdoors. Our online directory lists peer support groups based across England and Wales.

Let’s connect for our mental health

The Mind Garden is about inspiring us to connect with each other for our mental health. Here are some different ways that you can do that - whether it's connecting online, in person or in nature. Take a look or share with someone you love.

Connect online

Visit Side by Side, our online supportive community. A safe place to listen and be heard.

Join Side by Side

Connect in person

Connect at a peer support group at your local Mind. Or find one via our online peer support directory.

Find your local Mind

Connect with nature

Find out more about how spending time in nature can help your mental health and wellbeing.

Search online directory

Your stories

Solange, Zara and Victoria share their stories about how connecting in nature or connecting with others has been transformative for their mental health.

Solange's story

Solange blogs about how gardening has helped her cope with her bipolar disorder. 

Read now

Zara’s Story

Zara talks about her experience connecting with people who had similar experiences to her own.

Read now

Victoria's story

Victoria shares how attending an OCD support group allowed her to feel understood.

Read now

How you can support us

Feel inspired? There are lots of ways you can support us in making sure none of us face a mental health problem alone.

Donate to Mind

Donate today to help us make sure none of us face a mental health problem alone.

Subscribe to Pause

Give yourself a moment of 'me time' with a Pause box subscription. All proceeds go to Mind.

 

Campaign for Mind

Work with us to campaign for a better deal for people with mental health problems.

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