We’ve been awarded ‘OUTSTANDING’ at this year’s RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Awards!
We are delighted to announce that we entered the RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood (IYN) Awards this year after several years’ absence. We welcomed judges Claire Wallen and Toni Osborne to the garden for their assessment visit at the end of June and they were interested in everything about the Ridgeline garden, what we were doing and why. They saw our ‘Mindful Mondays’ clients in action working alongside Horticultural Therapist Katie and had a chat with client Ruth who talked them through the wilder sections of the garden (pond, wildflowers area, no dig veg gardening) and shared her story of mental health recovery through gardening at Ridgeline.
We subsequently received our report and we’ve really pleased to have been awarded an ‘OUTSTANDING’.
Thank you to all our client gardeners, all our horticultural therapy client support volunteers, our Wednesday maintenance volunteers and our Horticultural Therapists for the tremendous hard work to make the Ridgeline Trust garden so special and congratulations on receiving this recognition from the RHS IYN team.
Special thanks to Tuesday volunteers Carol and Steven who represented Ridgeline and collected our special certificate at the presentation ceremony!
View of the pavilion through the grasses and gaura
View of the dead hedge and beautiful chestnut and willow gates around the wild pond area
View of the raised beds and veg garden
Assessors Summary:
“The Ridgeline Trust Therapeutic Garden is an absolute gem, packed full of
beautiful ornamental and edible plants.
All the planting is extremely well thought out, and the site is clearly well
valued by the local community as well as the myriads of site users. Queues of
100+ visitors before plant sale open days is testament to its success.
It was lovely to hear first-hand from a site user how it helped with their mental
health. They are clearly very proud of their achievements.”
Areas of achievement:
“• The garden is inviting from the moment you enter the gate
• Everything is neat and tidy and well maintained
• Beautiful range of ornamental plants giving a sense of rhythm
• The range of schools and other groups using and collaborating at the site is
impressive
• The events they hold are very well known and well attended bringing in much
needed funds to the project
• It was lovely to meet with one of the site users who showed us the pond and
wild garden area that they worked on and explained how much it meant to
their mental health
• The collaboration with Reading University has boosted Ridgeline’s profile and
benefitted the site materially and financially”
Congratulations!
PMW 10/11/26
Congratulations on the Award. Very well deserved. The Ridgeline Trust is a great asset to the community and those experiencing mental health matters. Everyone involved works hard.
Great to hear of the collaboration with Reading University.
Keep up the valued work.
Thanks Helena! When everyone works so hard at the garden its a real pleasure when something like this happens!