Anyone interested in gardens and the therapeutic benefits of gardening needs no introduction to the dynamic husband and wife duo of Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith.   Drawing on their prodigious knowledge and expertise they have started the Serge Hill Project, a Community Interest Company working in partnership with the local Hertfordshire based charity Sunnyside Rural Trust.

The delightful Inner Temple Garden deserves to be better known.  It is a tranquil 3-acre haven, brimming with horticultural interest, between the Embankment and Fleet Street. ‘I used to look through the hedges and think that it was an Embassy’s garden,’ says Sean Harkin, the Head Gardener. But it’s barristers not diplomats that are to

The Glasshouse Botanic Design is an inspiring new social enterprise initiative launched earlier this year, at East Sutton Park, an open women’s prison in Kent. The brainchild of social entrepreneur Melissa Murdoch, and Kali Hamerton-Stove, the Project Director, the idea is to utilise the abandoned glasshouses that these days are to be found languishing at

The sad news of the demise of the charity ‘Gardening Leave’ at the end of last year inspired me to investigate charities working with horticulture as a way of helping people with a wide range of disabilities, ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable. Thrive, the leading gardening charity in the UK is

Having just been given a handsome new book ‘Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds’ by Victoria Summerley (wwwfranceslincoln.co.uk) my thoughts naturally turned to the ‘secret gardens of East Kent. The Abbey Physic Community Garden (www.faversham.org/community/clubs/abbey_physic_garden) in the ancient market town of Faversham instantly sprang to mind. Tucked away behind the churchyard of St. Mary of Charity by

Sitting at a wedding or a charity event have you ever wondered what eventually happens to the floral decorations? The chances are that their final destiny is to be dumped into a landfill site. Three cheers for the imaginative ‘green’ charity ‘Floral Angels’ www.floralangels.com that restyles donated flowers from events, weddings, florists and retailers into bouquets and delivers them