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Gardening

Gardening is a popular and relaxing pastime which you can continue or start to enjoy if you are blind or partially sighted.

A woman walks through a garden

RNIB has worked with Thrive to make gardening more accessible. Thrive is the leading charity in the UK that uses gardening to bring about positive changes in the lives of people who are living with disabilities or ill health, or are isolated, disadvantaged, or vulnerable. This is known as therapeutic horticulture.

RNIB, in partnership with Thrive, has developed a range of services which provide information and guidance to gardeners who have sight loss. We also have the following factsheets available which provide advice, information and contact details to help blind and partially sighted people to access gardening:

Thrive

Thrive can provide useful hints and tips from other gardeners who have sight loss.

The Get Gardening section of the Thrive website is full of ideas and inspiration for gardeners with sight loss, including how you can use gardening to enhance your health and wellbeing:

They also run therapeutic gardening sessions at their centres in Reading, London and Birmingham. You can find out more about them on the Thrive website.

Thrive also have the following specialised gardening publications available to purchase. Most of which are available in large print, braille and audio formats:

  • Getting on with growing food
  • Getting on with growing in containers
  • Gardening Yearbook
  • Gardening Together.

You can also download them in PDF format for free, from the publications section of the Thrive website.

For more information about Thrive telephone 0118 988 5688 or email [email protected].