Eden inspires military veterans to get gardening

MILITARY veterans facing mental health struggles are being invited to take part in new nature-based therapy programmes set in a tranquil space beyond the Eden Project Biomes.

Eden, working in partnership with the Defence Gardens Scheme (DGS), has just secured a grant from the Veterans’ Foundation to deliver the two ten-week programmes in the remainder of this year.

The sessions take place well away from the main visitor areas in the peaceful setting of the therapy garden at the former Vounder Farm on the wider Eden estate.

Veterans interested in taking part can join an open day there on May 18.

The first of the two tenweek courses runs for four hours every Wednesday from June 1 to July 20. There will be another open day on September 7 and the second course runs from September 28 to November 16.

The programmes, delivered by Eden and supervised by the DGS, address the physical, emotional, social and cognitive needs of participants using the safe space created by the therapy garden.

The aim is that participants will create their own gardening plots, sow, plant and nurture vegetables and flowers in the wider garden, and in the process recall how to nurture themselves when they are at their most vulnerable.

Harvesting from the garden and polytunnels and cooking in the crib room and over the fire in the roundhouse will provide a chance to eat delicious food and to discuss healthy eating.

Retired Army veteran Mick Mullaney, who has just completed a Royal Horticultural Society course at Eden, will be helping to lead the new courses alongside Eden horticultural therapy staff Julia Durbin and James Clark.

Mick joined his course after feeling isolated during the early stages of the global pandemic. Now he is looking forward to helping other veterans..

He said: “It’s been very therapeutic for me. I’ve never done anything like this. There is the physical aspect of the digging, the planting and the growing and then there is the calmness that this brings, and the camaraderie of working alongside others.

“I’ve been bitten by the gardening bug and have got an allotment at home now,” he added.

The DGS is a Community Interest Company which works in partnership with veterans’ charities, military units, community mental health service providers and gardening projects.