Our Vision

The Gardens embody a holistic approach to health promotion which recognizes the long term beneficial impacts of community gardening through the opportunities they provide for physical activity, a relaxing and serene environment, healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, social inclusion, contact with the natural world and community building.

In practical terms this has meant that the gardens:

• Are not comprised of individual allotments, but are shared areas, which encourage
  a) community building and community decision making
  b) participatory design: members of the Gardens are encouraged to contribute their ideas to the development of the gardens, although all projects must be approved by the Steering Group
• Are a multi-use facility for: gardening, meeting space, learning space, relaxation areas, and opportunities for all age involvement
• Have a commitment to environmental sustainability, through organic growing, education, educational volunteer opportunities, and incorporating existing natural habitat into the development of the site.

Goals
Community Gardening is of interest to a wide variety of people for many different reasons. Since the RECG was conceived as a multi-use green space facility welcoming a mix of different users one of the key challenges has been establishing and remaining true to a core set of goals.

• Tackle health inequalities
• Promote community building and social inclusion
• Provide a green space facility which provides opportunities for healthy lifestyles to the local community .
• Provide a green space facility to support the recovery of patients
• Promote environmental sustainability through environmental education and opportunities for environmental volunteering
• Promote growing and eating healthy local food
• Develop a replicable low cost model for community gardening on NHS Lothian estates