A residential care home in Monmouthshire has launched a fresh programme that links older people living there with nature through cultivation work.

Gibraltar Nursing Home in Monmouth has set up the Sunshine and Soil initiative, led by employees Tracy and Jane.

Jane, who manages the Beech House unit, explained that participation in such pursuits can give people a sense of purpose. Watching seeds develop and bloom carries particular importance for many – an experience comparable to raising children or looking after grandchildren. There is authentic satisfaction when spaces become full of colour – cutting flowers, harvesting vegetables, or tasting something just picked.

The scheme employs a mobile gardening trolley equipped with soil, seeds, and pots, with meetings held in a different wing of the home each week so residents can take part in plant-related activities without leaving their comfortable surroundings.

Gibraltar Nursing Home contains six separate units: Beech, Fernlea, Meadow, Riverleigh, Oakleigh, and Poplar.

The workshops are open to all residents and, as the season improves, will relocate outside using the grounds’ garden area.

The outdoor space includes a potting shed, cultivation beds, and vegetable patches.

Those living there have already produced various flowers and recently put in daffodils ready for St David’s Day.

Following this, the group intends to nurture a sunflower for every resident to display on their windowsills.

Jane observed that green areas and tending to plants can substantially support mental and emotional wellbeing – the scent and feel of earth, together with the focus and dexterity needed to fill containers with suitable quantities of soil, can help preserve capabilities that may have weakened.

Every session finishes with refreshments, giving residents time to socialise.

Sunshine and Soil are presently selling outdoor and indoor plants at the entrance, with takings supporting the programme’s ongoing development through extra seeds, plants, and gardening materials.