- Community Interest Gardening -
What do we do?
We are a 'Social Enterprise' which is a business that aims to solve social or environmental issues, rather than making a profit for its owners.
We provide gardening assistance for people with disabilities, who are vulnerable, recovering from surgery or temporarily struggling with their garden due to health issues.
We offer tailored garden-related training, mentoring and volunteering opportunities for people aged 16+.
Why?
Some Council areas in Scotland offer free garden assistance for people with disabilities on means tested benefits. In Dumfries & Galloway the service was stoppedin 2020 during the time of the Covid19 Pandemic. Since then many gardens have become overgrown.
We believe a garden should be considered a place of wellbeing and recovery at home.
We know that gardening and horticulture training can lead to highly rewarding careers with the right support.
It is widely accepted that active and passive gardening can improve mental and physical health.
We believe in building community relationships and positive neighbourhoods through gardening.
Who is this for?
We provide paid garden services for people wanting a safe and trusted service.
We aim to provide free garden assistance in 2025 for people who can demonstrate lack of existing support and are on means tested / disability benefits or are experiencing temporary health related issues; when we have the capacity and resources.
We welcome experienced gardeners looking for work opportunities.
We welcome organisations who want the ELVES team to provide skills training, advice, guidance or support with your community or educational garden spaces.
We welcome referral partners.
We welcome all volunteers regardless of background, age, gender or any aspect which makes us unique; gnomes and faeries included.
Where does this happen?
Our indoor classrooms and outdoor training grounds are based at the Crichton Estate, Dumfries
Our work experience continues into gardens identified through our garden assistance referral process.
Currently we are operating in Dumfries and surrounding areas.
When does this happen?
To express interest in getting garden assistance at yours or someone else's home please fill out our form on this link.
To apply for one our training and activities programs click here.
To join our team of volunteers or get onto a training click here.
Please note we cannot guarantee a fast turn-around for the garden assistance service due to the team being volunteer based. We appreciate your patience.
