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Such spaces are growing fast in the UK as efforts are made to make our urban and rural spaces greener and healthier with studies showing that there are significant wellbeing benefits, including improving people’s mental health.

Hosted in the New Adelphi conference centre, the , with spaces still available for those interested. The event forms the basis for the national Conference of Social Farms and Gardens, which is the UK’s charity for city farming, community gardening, care farming and green care. It will be a mix of inspirational conference speaker sessions and engaging interactive workshops with plenty of time and space for networking and building relationships. 

Focusing on bringing together members, academics and policymakers to drive the sector forward, the conference will focus on cutting-edge practice – the question of how can more city farms, community gardens and care farms be supporting the further scaling-up of innovative practices around nature & wellbeing. 

Professor Mike Hardman, Professor of Urban Sustainability and Director of the Environmental Research & Innovation Centre (ERIC), at the ��������, said: “The conference links to the cutting-edge research that we are doing on a global level. This is the place to learn from those who are leading the practice in this area – this is a real open, inclusive opportunity to get involved in our work and find out more on what we do.

“We are seeing more interest than ever before in urban farming and greening our urban spaces.”

The conference is also linked to the Horizon and UKRI-funded GreenME project and our work on the Thrive building at ��������. The former, which aims to identify ways in which effective nature-based therapies and a broader green care framework can be scaled up to improve adult mental health and wellbeing equity in Europe, will use the conference to showcase cutting-edge work in this area. 

Mike Hardman said: “There is lots of research to show that engagement with nature has a positive impacts on people and communities, with benefits ranging from stress relief to calming effects on patients, such as those in dementia case, and beyond.” 

During his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, Prime Minister Andy Burnham set up the Greater Manchester Environment Fund, which is a pioneering regional impact fund designed to support projects that enhance the natural environment, tackle climate change and promote sustainability across Greater Manchester.

With more interest than ever before, researchers hope to see more connection with nature: whether it’s new planning developments with BNG or incorporating more creative ways of greening all the way into Manchester city centre or on a wider scale within the UK or internationally. 

Mike Hardman said: “We want to be strategically investing to make sure that particularly marginalised, deprived populations have better access to high-quality nature, which will have a positive impact on their wellbeing.”

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