The nationwide campaign run by the Soil Association’s Food for Life Get Togethers programme will be bringing people together again for its third year between 22nd April – 20th May.
Plant and Share Month is a celebration of growing and community, rooted in the experience of sowing, planting and sharing. The event continues to grow each year: in 2022 over 500 registered activities took place, and bespoke resources were downloaded over 23,000 times.
Kicking off on Earth Day – Saturday 22nd April and concluding on World Bee Day – Saturday 20th May, it is completely free to register and includes access to a vast selection of free resources, toolkits and event planning tips.
Adam Carter, Senior Programme Manager, Food for Life Get Togethers says: “We couldn’t be more inspired seeing just how many people have come together over the last three years of Plant and Share.
“Whether it’s community groups building urban gardens, schools planting vegetables to incorporate in healthy school meals or people growing something for the first time, it’s been a real joy to help get boots on the ground.
“Launching in 2021 mid-pandemic was challenging, but seeing it evolve from neighbours sharing seedlings over garden walls to entire communities meeting up in the gardens they’ve grown together has been heart-warming – we can’t wait to see what participants get up to this year.”
For additional inspiration, Plant and Share month will have themed weeks to help inspire everyone with the sheer variety of reasons it’s good to grow. The themes are: Growing for All, Growing to Eat, Growing for Joy and Growing for Nature.
Free resources will be released via the newsletter and available on the Food for Life Get Together’s website from 22nd March and will cover activities such as growing fresh herbs to attract pollinators, companion planting beautiful flowers, ‘grow your own soup’, and learning about which plants can attract bug life to the garden. With Plant and Share Month’s fun, engaging and free resources, all of this and more is possible to help people get rooted in nature.
There are plenty of other reasons to celebrate throughout the month too, including the return of Food for Life’s Grandparent Gardening Week, intergenerational activities and the Coronation which will include campaign partner the Eden Project’s Big Lunch, both great opportunities to start growing and sharing skills with friends, family and the whole community.
How can people take part?
People can take part by starting an event either with friends, family or within their local community and registering it on our website, or by joining an existing event in their local area. Reach out to local community groups to see if there’s an event happening nearby, or help to arrange one with them.
If you’re interested in covering an event local to you, please let us know and we can help with finding out event details.