A community initiative placing planting and growing at the centre of improving wellbeing
Date of project: Spring 2021
About growing together
As spring unfolded after a long winter in lockdown, the team at RAMM produced six ‘Growing Together’ seed activities to take part in. Inspired by the museum’s seed exhibitions for summer 2021, Seedscapes: Future-Proofing Nature and Léonie Hampton: A Language of Seeds, the packs encouraged participants to plant one species a week, and learn a few fun facts along the way.
The seeds included aromatic herbs, bright flowers and medicinal blooms, such as calendula, basil and sunflowers. All were bee and nature-friendly and easy to care for in a garden or on a windowsill. The museum sent free seed and info packs out to around 50 different community groups, such as Ladysmith Infant and Nursery School, Refugee Support Devon, and Exmouth’s Deaf Academy. Members of the public could also order their Growing Together seed and info packs from RAMM’s online shop at a subsidised price.
Each new seed planting activity was released on the RAMM social media channels every Monday between early April and mid-May 2021. Participants were encouraged to engage and share their seed planting journeys with RAMM and other members of the growing community online.
Improving wellbeing and mental health
The project aimed to inspire local communities across Exeter and the wider Devon community to come together and re-ignite their love of nature. The pandemic situation had a drastic impact on people’s mental health. The project helped to empower people to feel less isolated, bring happiness and relief into their lives and learn a few skills along the way after a difficult period of lockdown.
“Growing Together is our way of inspiring our communities to come together and re-ignite their love of nature. We’ve all been stuck indoors more than we would like recently, but we know how much people value being in the outdoors and enjoying the world around us. Picking up our gardening gloves, digging in the dirt, and growing beautiful flowers and useful herbs can really help our wellbeing. By sharing this with each other through the Growing Together project we can reconnect with the world.
Maya Herbolzheimer, project lead for Growing Together
Feedback…
“We explored plant life cycles in more depth inspired from planting the sunflower seeds.”
“An excellent idea – thank you!
“We shared the seeds and a copy of the brochure with 4 refugees in Devon…they learnt how to plant various herbs.”
Further information
Maya Herbolzheimer
Engagement Officer, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter
