Natural World Products gardening workshops make Lisburn a place we 'Love to Live'
Love to Live, a health and wellbeing initiative offering horticultural workshops to local charities and community organisations in Lisburn, has brought a range of benefits to people in the area, according to participants in the programme.
Funded by Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council and delivered by Natural World Products, producer of New Leaf peat-free compost, Love to Live aims to improve horticultural skills, bring more awareness around nutrition and reduce social isolation in the local community.
The programme offers up to eight hours of workshops for each participating group, covering aspects of gardening from sowing, transplanting and nurturing, through to harvesting, cooking and tasting the homegrown produce. Love to Live also delivers free, seasonally-themed workshops for the general public to attend, such as pumpkin carving, wreath making and St. Brigid’s cross making.
Bells Lane Allotments has been a key location for the programme, as its purpose-built accessible gardening facilities, raised beds, polytunnel and work benches make the workshops on offer open to a wide range of participants.
Sharon McMaster, Community Growing and Outreach Manager with Natural World Products explained: “Over the past two years, we have delivered over 160 workshops as part of the Love to Live programme in Lisburn.
"It has been wonderful to welcome local groups including young adults with additional needs, adults with brain injuries, women’s groups, and school children to enjoy the programme and we are delighted with its success.”
Elaine Rush, Day Service Manager from Live Life Wellbeing Centre which took part in the programme added: “Our group offers day opportunities services for 29 adults with additional needs.
"We offer a range of activities including allotments, pottery, arts and crafts, which give our members fulfilling work each day.
"The team of facilitators from Natural World Products play a key role in our work by helping us to plan out the growing season in our allotment and training our staff and participants.
“Nutrition is a big part of the programme, and we use the fruit and vegetables that we grow to make soup for the pensioners, jams and chutneys for sale to support our social enterprise.
"Love to Live covers all of our different skillsets that we teach in our group - mental health, physical, emotional, wellbeing - so it really is a great all-rounder for us.”