Greening Great Britain

Greening Great Britain

The RHS (that’s the Royal Horticultural Society) is Britain’s oldest horticultural charity. Probably best known for its world famous flower shows, it seeks to bring horticultural and gardening to as wide a range of people as possible.

It runs a number of campaigns to do this including Britain in Bloom, Community Gardening, Wild About Gardens, National Gardening Week, and its Campaign for School Gardens. It has half a million members who support campaigns such as these through their member fees (By the way, I think it’s membership is very good value and would make a great gift for someone who loves gardens and wants to learn more about them.)

One of the campaigns the RHS runs is Greening Great Britain. The campaign was launched in 2015.

What is Greening Great Britain about?

Greening Great Britain is, I think, a fantastic campaign. Basically, the RHS is encouraging everyone to grow even more plants in ANY setting across Britain. The RHS say that plants are vital for our health and for the environment.

And the RHS and its membership have shown just what can be done when people unite and create green spaces to benefit their wellbeing, to help wildlife and to help their local community.

So far, over 22 million plants were added to gardens by the RHS and its members – at least 157,000 of these were trees! And that created the equivalent of 98 hectares of forest every year!

If you think that over three quarters of members decided to choose plants which attracted bees, and not far off half selected plants for other pollinators, that should help support the growth of our green places and our food chains.

So here’s how to get involved:

1. Green Great Britain!

You could add pollen and nectar rich plants to attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies
Put flowers, climbers or plants in your front garden – they will help manage rainfall and fight climate change in urban areas
Find out if you can put a small pond (or a big pond) for wildlife somewhere in your local community

2. When you’ve done your bit of greening, share what you’re doing to support Greening Great Britain by using the hashtag #GreeningGreatBritain on social media. You could put up a photo or video to inspire other people to get involved!

Love gardening?

Why not become a member of the RHS? There are lots of benefits to be enjoyed, including personalised advice from an RHS expert online or on the phone, discounted show tickets and the monthly magazine The Garden. Find out more here. You’ll be helping the RHS to grow the next generation of gardeners as memberships support their campaigns!