Gardens: Growing for good with Cultivating Change

Growing and gardening are proven to benefit both mind and body. That’s the founding premise of Cambridge-based charity Cultivating Change, which sees lifelong friends Sally Nye and Rosie Ferrandino share seeds and a sense of community with people of all ages and walks of life. As told to Alice Ryan

Seeds of change

Cultivating Change is a Cambridgeshire-based registered charity that provides seed donations to support mental health and wellbeing. The initiative was set up at the end of 2020. Each season we donate hundreds of bundles of vegetable and flower seeds to individuals, families, schools, charities, mental health support groups, community allotments and more.

The growers, our #cultivatorsforchange, become part of a virtual community where they are invited to document their seed-growing journey and enjoy the support and encouragement of like-minded people. This connection allows Cultivating Change to chart the positive impact that growing can have on the community’s wellbeing.

Green shoots

We have been blown away by the enthusiasm our growers have for the project! 100% of growers say they have benefited. These are some quotes from members of our virtual community: “I’ve been busy and proactive instead of staying inside my head. My depression is not as bad as it has been for 10 years”; “It frees up your mind from day-to-day stress”, “Lovely community feel to the Facebook group”.

Many of our growing groups also share their seeds with their wider communities, so the reach of the seeds is always further than just the original connection. One of the big projects we’ve been involved in was with Essex council, where in the summer of 2021 we donated more than 10,000 packs of seeds that were included in holiday packs for their vulnerable children and families support programme, Activate.

First-hand experience

Sal has first-hand experience of the benefits of nature in relation to mental and physical recovery, which shaped the direction of Cultivating Change. Having lived with chronic pain for more than a decade, she has had eight spinal surgeries, the most recent of which was to implant a spinal cord stimulator as a method to reduce her daily pain.

Living with constant and chronic pain is exhausting and has led to periods of poor mental health; feeling “at absolute rock bottom, very depressed and physically drained”, a few years ago it forced her to give up her career as a teacher.

Sal felt she had lost her purpose in life, but found that being outside in nature and doing a little bit of gardening gave her a renewed drive and focus, slowly restoring her wellbeing. “The mental and physical benefits became very apparent, and I wanted to share this discovery with others,” she explains.

Following discussions with her friend and life-coach Gill Harvey-Bush and also her husband Dan - who runs the pioneering Ely company CN Seeds and decided to help by donating surplus seed that otherwise would have been wasted - Cultivating Change was up and running.

Healing powers

The power of being in nature through horticulture has long been recognised as a restorative or preventative therapeutic activity. This quote by Robert Breault sums it up: “I cultivate my garden and my garden cultivates me.”

In 2014 the University of Exeter Medical School analysed health data from 1,000 urban residents and found that “people living near to green space reported less mental distress”. In 2021 the RHS released research that revealed “those who garden every day have a wellbeing score of 6.6% higher and stress levels 4.2% lower that people who didn’t garen at all”.

Exposure to the M.vaccae bacteria in the soil can increase levels of serotonin and reduce anxiety. The physical nature of gardening is good for our bodies, bending, stretching, digging, mowing etc; it can be hard work and can have positive cardiovascular benefits.

By eating what you grow you are also accessing fresh home-grown produce, great for health, the environment and being sustainable.

Forever friends

Having been friends since school and stayed connected ever since - they travelled together after university, shared a flat in London, and now their children go to the same schools in Cambridge - Rosie has tried to support Sal as much as possible over the years.

“My background is in digital marketing,” says Rosie, “and when Sal first suggested the concept of Cultivating Change we were both able to take elements from our previous careers to shape what Cultivating Change is now. It’s brilliant working with a lifelong friend. It’s really easy to work together and we each bring individual strengths that make it work, there is a good balance. We also have a lot of laughs!”

Community spirit

The virtual community element of Cultivating Change has been great and is something we really want to focus on 2023. We have some lovely personal stories from the community. For instance, two members discovered they actually lived on the same street and it was fantastic to see a new ‘in real life’ relationship blossom from our seed donations.

Another member had had a catastrophic brain injury and found that growing from seed really helped her regain purpose and strength. She sent us the most amazing scrapbook that documented the impact the process had had. It was the most beautiful thing: the amount of work she had put in and the level of detail, from planting the seeds to creating recipes she made for eating what she grew, really made us emotional and highlighted how positive the impact gardening and growing can be.

On a larger scale, a brilliant community allotment shared the seeds with more than 600 schoolchildren, scout groups and their volunteers, all from one single donation. They all fed back the joy being involved had brought them, as well as having home grown food to eat themselves and share with their wider community. We have connections with more than 30 schools and we have loved seeing the children’s enjoyment.

No limits

We would love to increase our reach so that in the future we will see ALL schools, hospitals, care homes and mental health facilities including growing and gardening in some form as part of their curriculum and standard practice.

We are so lucky to be supported by pioneering seed company CN Seeds, but we would love to build connections with other seed companies, encouraging them to donate excess seed so we can widen the variety and volume of seeds that we can provide.

One day we would love to have a Cultivating Change book that highlights all the personal stories from our #cultivatorsforchange during their seed growing journeys. Each of our growers has such individual reasons for getting involved and this rich tapestry could create a fascinating and beautiful book!

We’d also love to bring our #cultivatorsforchange together in real life; a Cultivating Change live event for building connections, swapping seeds, stories, tips, wellbeing support.

Sense of reward

For Sal, the reward comes from “the buzz of seeing an application from someone where we really feel Cultivating Change seeds can have an impact; hearing all the positive feedback from the growers and the feeling that we are making a difference, helping and supporting people; working with schools again and getting ‘hands on’ after having to give up teaching.”

For Rosie, “the connections we have made have been so rewarding. It’s been brilliant to meet some of our growers and listen to their stories. Also meeting other like-minded people in this wellbeing space and forging positive collaborations and cultivating new connections.”

All-inclusive

No matter what gardening space you have, whether you are growing in a garden, on an allotment or on a window sill, nurturing and cultivating seeds and plants and spending time surrounded by nature can really have a positive and long-lasting therapeutic benefit. Fundamentally we want to get as many people as possible benefitting from the ‘vitamin green’ concept!

To get involved, fill in the application at cultivatingchange.co.uk and explain how and why you think you could benefit from growing the seeds. The applications for seed bundles for 2023 officially close at the end of February, but will remain open till end of March for readers of Velvet - just quote ‘Velvet’ in the ‘Where did you hear about us?’ box. Seeds will be sent out in the spring, along with growing instructions and the link to join the virtual community.