Growing Ability

Want to get out into nature and learn about growing food and gardening? Get active and improve your fitness and stamina? Build your confidence? Meet new people and do things together?

Growing Ability offers half day social therapeutic horticulture sessions for adults with learning disabilities and mental ill health, at our beautiful growing plots and community garden in Hitchin.

If you join Growing Ability as a ‘gardener’ you’ll be taking part in meaningful activities and informal training in horticulture, nature conservation, healthy living, cooking and food prep, nature-based art and crafts/woodwork.

At Growing Ability we work together to grow fruit and vegetables in our beautiful growing space, often making what we grow into delicious healthy food. As well as helping to look after the Triangle Community Garden and the wildlife habitats within it, we also go on active nature walks around our local park and support each other in living healthier lives.

Everyone at Growing Ability is involved in making plans for what we do at the project, from small decisions like how long we will walk each day, to big ideas like getting a polytunnel and deciding what to grow in it. Our quarterly reviews with gardeners, staff and volunteers help to inform how our organisation develops.

At Growing Ability it’s a lot more than gardening. As well as learning new skills, we like to have fun – we celebrate birthdays, we enjoy doing art, we explore new taste experiences, we go on visits to places like Cambridge Botanical Gardens and we help run community events like Hitchin Apple Day and our Summer Garden Party.

If you or someone you know would like to join us at Growing Ability, please contact us