Horticulture and culture!

We Are Lewisham and we champion biodiversity.

Combine culture and horticulture for the May gardening creative challenge.

There are so many benefits to growing plants, from supporting good mental health through mindfulness, to offering food for pollinators such as bees and supporting a bio-diverse environment. As well as offering health and environmentally friendly benefits, nature can also be a source of creative inspiration.

The natural environment has been a source of inspiration for photographers and landscape artists throughout time, but the act of gardening itself can also be a creative act. It could be how shapes and colours are cultivated, or how plants grow within the built environment – these too make the gardener not just a grower, but an artist.

Get involved with the May creative challenge by tagging us in your posts on on our social media channels. We want to see:

• Photographs of your favourite houseplants, window boxes or gardens posed in a creative way.
• Pictures of your favourite blooms taken across Lewisham, from cherry blossom to wisteria, we want to see it!
• Videos of how the plants move in your garden, and what sounds you can hear.

Learn some gardening skills to help you at:

• Tuesdays at Beckenham Place Park: Volunteer Community Gardening
• Wednesdays at Brockley Frendsbury Gardens: Volunteer Community Gardening
• Thursdays at The Albany: Come and Grow
• Various days at the Forest Hill Library Garden: Sign up to the newsletter for more info
• Thursdays and Fridays at Catford Wildcat Wilderness: Volunteer mornings & afternoons

On Sunday 31 July at the Beckenham Place Park show, enter the flower arranging and gardening competitions to show off all the amazing things you planted for the May creative challenge.