RHS Community Gardening

Home
United Kingdom
London
RHS Community Gardening

Celebrating community gardening, sharing gardening tips and encouraging more people to grow.

01/10/2025

From 1 October 2025, we will no longer post and monitor comments on this page. For updates on RHS Communities and advice on community gardening, please follow our main page RHS - Royal Horticultural Society. Thanks to everyone who’s been following this page over the years!

24/09/2025

Autumn is a good time to plant hedges 💚

Unlike fences and walls, hedges provide benefits for us and the wildlife that lives in our gardens. They have the natural ability to capture pollution, reduce noise, mitigate flooding and provide food and shelter to wildlife. Plants such as beech, holly and privet are all great options.

Learn more on this topic: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/hedges/with-environmental-benefits

19/09/2025

Our first Community Gardening Meet-Up in Colchester brought together 30 people to explore sustainability, wellbeing and nature-friendly gardening.

The day began with networking and stalls, followed by inspiring talks from Alison Findlay (RHS), Åsa Gregers-Warg (Beth Chatto's Gardens) and Julia Boulton (Beth Chatto Education Trust), who share practical ideas for sustainable gardening. Their top tips:
🌿 Get to know your compost and make your own if you can
🌿 Be water wise - create borders with drought-tolerant plants
🌿 Don't be too tidy over winter - leave plants as long as possible
🌿 Use signs to explain changes to the way your garden looks

A Gardeners' Question Time panel tackled topics like dead hedging and planting in tricky spaces, with the day ending with a tour of Together We Grow's community garden, highlighting how gardening supports mental health recovery.

Beth Chatto's Plants & Gardens Bury in Bloom

17/09/2025

🌧🌧🌧

As we approach the end of a hot, dry summer in the UK, conserving water is more important than ever...

What are your top tips for using water wisely in the garden?

12/09/2025

Despite being one of Britain’s best-loved mammals, hedgehogs are in alarming decline, with nearly half of the UK population having been lost in just 13 years 🦔

Give hedgehogs a helping hand with these hedgehog-friendly gardening tips from RHS Senior Wildlife Specialist Helen Bostock:

1. Make a hedgehog highway, making CD-sized holes at the base of fences to allow hedgehogs to move freely around your neighbourhood

2. Put out a shallow bowl of water in your garden and keep this topped up during hot weather

3. Build a pile of logs, twigs or leaves to create a larder of juicy grubs and beetles; the perfect menu items for hedgehogs

4. In early autumn, put out tinned meaty dog or cat food, to help them get them through their long, cold winter hibernation

5. Install one or more hedgehog houses in your space, tucking them into a sheltered spot such as behind the shed

Discover more tips: https://www.rhs.org.uk/wildlife/hedgehog-friendly-gardening

11/09/2025

HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire has impressed judges with its innovative and inclusive approach to gardening, winning the 2025 Windlesham Trophy for best-kept prison in England and Wales.

The team of prisoners and prison staff embraced this year's theme of sustainability with a host of new and developed projects across the site. A new glasshouse has been built to grow fresh produce, a rainwater capture system has been installed to reduce reliance on mains water and raised beds have been constructed using reclaimed bricks and wood.

These are just a few of the projects taking place at HMP Whatton, supporting prisoners to have access to green spaces and helping them develop skills for rehabilitation.

Read more about this year's Windlesham Trophy: https://bit.ly/4pd89kB

10/09/2025

Create a Hapa Zome print with your blooms 💐🔨

Discover the art of flower bashing and make beautiful botanical prints using natural pigments. This hands-on activity is perfect for community gardening sessions or you could try it at home and share the results with neighbours.

https://rhs.org.uk/education-learning/children-young-people/family-activities/do-it/flower-bashing

08/09/2025

Scotland-based Community Outreach Advisor Angela believes planet-friendly gardening has never been more important, and that there are several simple yet impactful ways you can make your garden more sustainable:

🌎 Start by harvesting rainwater - using a water butt to collect rain from your roof reduces reliance on mains water and helps conserve this precious resource: https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-jobs/water-collecting-storing-and-using

🌎 Choose peat-free compost to help protect peat bogs, which are vital carbon stores and play a key role in mitigating climate change: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/peat

🌎 Grow a diverse range of species - including native, near-native and exotic varieties - to support the health and diversity of bees, butterflies, moths, hoverflies and other essential pollinators: https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/research/plants-for-pollinators

04/09/2025

Bristol’s flourishing network of community gardens, orchards and urban farms will open their gates for this year’s Get Growing Trail on 20–21 September. The harvest-themed trail invites visitors to explore 34 diverse growing spaces and meet the people behind them.

Highlights include:
🌱 Roots Allotments is revolutionising city growing with accessible, ready-to-grow
plots, plus the site is working in partnership with Bristol Secret Soup Society,
sharing surplus produce and helping tackle food waste
🌱 The Bristol Rainforest is inviting visitors to learn how to build their own vertical
growing system and take home a pomegranate seedling
🌱 Elm Tree Farm will give visitors the chance to enjoy the farm and its surroundings
- run according to organic principles and supporting adults with learning disabilities
and autism
🌱 Alive's Dementia-friendly Allotment helps people keep enjoying gardening even after they can no longer manage their own plot

“From transforming concrete yards into vibrant gardens to sharing harvests with soup kitchens, these projects are about more than growing food - they’re about growing community, care and connection.” - Ramona Andrews, Coordinator of the Get Growing Trail 2025

https://bristolgoodfood.org/2025/07/28/get-growing-trail-2025/

02/09/2025

A short walk from the hustle and bustle of London’s Borough Market and Bankside is Red Cross Garden. Set against the backdrop of The Shard, this hidden gem is cared for by the Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST), along with volunteers and local residents.

Discover the group's top tips for community gardeners:
💚 Involve volunteers in anything that needs doing – whether it’s sweeping leaves, litter picking or pruning
💚 Promote local training opportunities to volunteers, either your own or at nearby sites
💚 Add a wildlife pond to encourage natural predators to your space
💚 Invite others to benefit from your space – after-school clubs, poetry readings or other events could be held there
💚 Dedicate an indoor area to propagation as a way of getting more plants for free

These green pockets in urban areas enrich neighbourhoods through community, collaboration and environmental education.

Read the full story: https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/britain-in-bloom/red-cross-garden

01/09/2025

This month's to-do list 👇

✅ Plant spring flowering bulbs
✅ Divide herbaceous perennials
✅ Collect and sow seed from perennials and hardy annuals
✅ Pick autumn raspberries
✅ Cover leafy vegetable crops with bird-proof netting

What's on yours? Let us know in the comments!

29/08/2025

Choosing the right plant for your space can be a minefield... 🤯

As we approach autumn, a great season for getting plants in the ground so they can establish over winter, use our plant search tool to guide your choices to ensure you select the right plant for the right place. Filter by aspect, colour, soil, size and other characteristics.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/search-form

Address

London

Telephone

+442078213069

Website

http://www.rhs.org.uk/communities

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when RHS Community Gardening posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to RHS Community Gardening:

Shortcuts

Featured

British DJ & MC Academy
The grangeway
Hephzibar Foundation