PIER Community Garden

PIER offers a gardening on prescription service that can be accessed via self-referral or referrals from health services and other support services.

Social Prescribing connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.

Our offer includes:

• Gardening
• Arts and Crafts
• Walking groups
• Cooking and sharing meals together

Social prescribing can reduce pressure on the NHS by reducing GP appointments, hospital admissions and A&E visits. Studies suggest that social prescribing schemes can deliver between £2.14 and £8.56 of social value for every £1 invested.

 

Time spent in nature is linked to a range of positive mental and physical health outcomes such as:

Improved physical health

Gardening has been proven to help reduce blood pressure, stress levels, risk of diabetes and other associated health conditions.

Improved mental health

Engaging in community projects reduces social isolation and create connections that boost happiness, resilience and overall wellbeing.

When offered alongside therapeutic and mindfulness activities, gardening can reduce symptoms of PTSD and ADHD. These conditions are common among the homeless and vulnerable people we support.

Three things that unite us!

We all need a place where we belong, for many that place is our community garden PIER.

At PIER we grow a range of fruits, veggies, flowers and herbs, and we love to get together and taste what we’ve grown! Volunteers love to take home freshly harvested ingredients and bring back dishes to share together.

Why not try out Shamshad’s Pakora Recipe for a taste of PIER?

Ingredients:

• 1 onion diced
• 3 medium potatoes diced
• 3-4 tablespoons gram flour
• Half teaspoon coarsely ground coriander seeds
• Half teaspoon cumin seeds
• Half a teaspoon salt
• Half teaspoon chilli powder
• Handful of chopped coriander

Method

• Mix all ingredients with little water to a thick consistency.
• Heat oil to a medium heat in a deep pan.
• Carefully drop a spoonful of the pakora mix and fry until light brown.

Tip! Don’t let the oil get too hot, the pakoras will brown very quickly and not cook properly if this happens.

What have you got in your garden? Why not mix it up and add chopped spinach, cauliflower, aubergine or cabbage to your mixture!

Petrus has designed and built incredible gardens at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park since 2019. Each garden been coproduced by service users, volunteers and staff from PIER, conveying messages about the importance of community gardening and food growing.

We do this to showcase what people can achieve when they are empowered, trusted, and believed in.

You can read about our gardens past and present at PIER at Tatton Park here.

We rely on grant funding and donations to run this service. If you would like to donate, please visit our Enthuse Page here.

The impact of your donations:

£50 can provide all-weather clothing for two people to join nature-based wellbeing activities

£100 can fund a week of wellbeing group activities

£400 can fund a month of wellbeing group activities

£4800 can fund a year of wellbeing group activities

Make Petrus your Charity of the Year

Giving to charity is proven to boost office moral! When you choose us as your charity of the year, we’ll help you put the fun in fundraising, creating lots of opportunities for your staff to get involved in giving back, volunteer at PIER and more!

Please contact petrus@petrus.org.uk for more information.