Grimsby Garden Centre is celebrating 10 years of growth, community, and wellbeing under Navigo’s ownership, a decade of nurturing minds and gardens alike through plants, training, and therapeutic activities.

To mark the milestone, the garden centre is inviting everyone to join a free community potting day on Saturday 1 November, from 10am to 3pm.

Visitors can get their hands dirty potting flower and vegetable seeds to take home, enjoy 10% off all Christmas stock, and be part of a fun, feel-good day celebrating a decade of growing together.

Since Navigo took ownership in 2015, Grimsby Garden Centre has grown into a thriving social enterprise that reinvests profits back into site upkeep, development, and local mental health services.

Highlights from the past 10 years include:

• Swiftly pivoting from bricks-and-mortar to a COVID-safe delivery model during the 2020 lockdown, ensuring people could still access the wellbeing benefits of gardening when little other activities were available.
• Doubling the size of the eatery and rebranding Café Blue as the much-loved Potting Shed, which reopened in May 2021 and has since served thousands of meals and hot drinks to customers.
• Being selected as one of the nation’s Small Biz 100 in 2022, recognising its contribution to local employment, therapeutic programmes, and the community.
• Creating an onsite therapeutic allotment to share gardening expertise with service users and volunteers – helping to boost mental health, wellbeing and skills.

The centre runs a growing programme of volunteering, training, and therapeutic horticulture supporting Navigo and Nurtrio service users and local organisations such as Linkage.

Over the last year alone, 51 people took part in therapeutic horticulture at the allotment, building confidence, routine, and meaningful social connections.

Over the years, several staff members began their journey at the garden centre receiving support but went on to secure paid roles in the centre, some remain part of the team and others have progressed elsewhere.

Simon Beeton, Chief Executive of Navigo, said: “Back in 2015, our vision for Grimsby Garden Centre was simple but ambitious. We wanted to create a place where nature, training, and mental health support come together. We wanted Navigo to be rooted in a well-loved community space, breaking down stigma, offering meaningful work and therapeutic opportunities, and reinvesting into mental health services. Ten years on, the centre continues to do exactly that, it’s a space of community, purpose and real impact for people across North East Lincolnshire.”

Louis Dyble (pictured right), allotment attendee, said: “My favourite thing about being at the allotment is being able to get out of the house and do something physical as well as taking my mind off overthinking. I think if I did not come here, I would just be at home on my own. Everybody’s great here, Mandy [support and engagement worker] really helps as well because she understands people come here with different issues.”

Craig Champion (pictured top), Garden Centre Manager, said: “I’ve been here long before Navigo took the reins, but there’s much more purpose in my role now. I look forward to coming to work each day, knowing the income we generate helps maintain and develop the centre and supports local mental health services. I’m proud of my team, our colleagues, the service users and volunteers, and the progress they make. I’m proud to be part of it.”