WORK has begun to create a new garden near Festival Place in a bid to help residents connect with plants to support their mental health and wellbeing.

The shopping centre in Basingstoke has broken new ground as work begins on its Giving Garden, which is being created at the Basingstoke shopping centre as part of its ongoing commitment to the local community.

The Giving Garden is the latest in a series of initiatives designed to benefit the area, and this week saw the first earth turned in the creation of a space.

Festival Place asked Instagram favourite The Beardy Gardener – aka gardening and mental health advocate Leigh Johnstone – to transform an unloved patch of ground outside its Church Street entrance after hearing of the Giving Garden he created on his own patch.

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Leigh and his team got to work with their spades to rejuvenate the soil ready for a community planting day at the end of April.

Leigh said: “I am very lucky to have been asked by Festival Place to design their own giving garden on an unloved patch of dirt just outside the main entrance.

“The garden will follow all the principles of the original giving garden project, providing a space for local people to connect with plants to support their own mental health and wellbeing.

“My planting design – created with support from the wonderful mindful gardener Lucy Butler – combines pollinator-friendly varieties with year-round interest and more importantly plants that tickle all the senses and make you feel good.

“Gardening is so beneficial to our mental health because it encourages us to slow down, to look at the bigger picture, to connect with the seasons and to notice things more. Plants grow at their own pace and in their own time and there is something magical about watching the progress of those seeds you planted turn into seedlings and then blossom into thriving flowers or vegetables.

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Theatre director Leigh found that learning to garden during lockdown transformed his deteriorating mental health, improving his self-esteem, boosting his mood and combatting stress.

He started sharing his garden on Instagram, posting pictures of his flowers, vegetable beds and seed sowing, and talking about the power of gardening as an aid to mental wellbeing.

The account took off, and soon Leigh was receiving messages from all over the world thanking him for his positive posts that people found boosted their own mental health.

For more details, visit festivalplace.co.uk.