Garden centres across the country are joining forces with TV gardener David Domoney and the Horticultural Trade Association to encourage communities to team up with their neighbours and spruce up their front gardens.
More than 250 garden centres, including groups Dobbies, Klondyke and Haskins plus a host of independents, have already signed up and are encouraging local residents to join in and get gardening.
The Cultivation Street campaign, launched in association with the HTA and the Sunday People newspaper, aims to promote gardening among communities and bring together neighbours young and old to make their street a nicer place to live.
The HTA has put up a prize fund of £20,000 of National Garden Gift Vouchers to support the campaign. The top prize for ‘Britain’s best street’ is £10,000, and there are 16 regional and special recognition awards to be won too.
Grosvenor Garden Centre (above) is a strong supporter “We have the leaflets in our coffee shop and posters and leaflets by the tills, it’s a great way to encourage our local communities to get growing. It makes perfect sense - more gardeners, more customers.”
Mike Parker, General Manager at Bents Garden & Home, says: “Spending just a little time outside each day, whether tending to plants or just enjoying green space, can help improve our mood so we’re big fans of any type of gardening.
"The Cultivation Street Campaign is a great initiative, promoting community and neighbourly gardening and inspiring people to get outdoors. At Bents we are in the process of creating some new community allotments which we believe will be a great way of encouraging our local community to get even more involved in gardening.”
Andy Bunker, of Alton Garden Centre, says: “I think Cultivation Street is a great idea as it appeals to a wide audience with gardens both large and small. We need gardening to have more exposure and with David at the helm we have a great ambassador.”
Campaign founder David Domoney said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the support from garden centres up and down the country. It’s great to see them using the campaign as a way to engage with their local communities and promote gardening to more people. The purpose of the campaign is to bring people together through gardening, and to encourage people who are new to gardening to get outside and have a go.”
But he added: “We need even more garden centres to join in and help us make a difference. It’s a great way for them to build stronger relationships with their local community. Garden centres are the best place for people to get advice and recommendations.”
Cultivation Street is about bringing back a sense of pride to the streets of Britain and is squarely behind forming relationships with communities and local garden centres. The campaign hopes to benefit garden centres as well as their customers by getting neighbours together and encouraging more people to take up gardening.
The campaign also aims to reward different gardening achievements, and includes categories to reward school and community gardens, as well as poppy displays to celebrate the centenary of the First World War.
It’s extremely easy for garden centres to get involved. They can apply to the HTA to receive a free POS and marketing pack with a totem display, posters, leaflets and stands. It’s a fantastic way to engage with their local community and schools and encourage neighbours to join forces and get gardening and growing together.
If you are a garden centre here is what to do
- Contact Tony Stacey at the HTA tony.stacey@the-hta.org.uk he will send you leaflets & posters all free of charge
- Set up posters, place leaflet boxes in café, tills or other trafficked locations.
- Nominate a member of your staff to champion the project send off the leaflets to local schools in your area, garden clubs, community projects, housing associations etc.
For more information visit www.daviddomoney.com/cultivation-street and follow @CultivationSt on Twitter.
