Thrive offers new free support for gardeners who have sight loss

People who have sight loss can start or continue to cultivate beautiful gardens with support from Thrive, the charity that uses gardening to change lives. Thrive now offers three new free services to gardeners who have sight loss:

• A gardening starter pack including great ideas and gardening tips for spring, summer, autumn and winter for flower, vegetable and fruit gardens. It also includes free Suttons Seed Tapes, pre-spaced seeds are embedded onto strips of tissue paper which can be placed directly in the ground, which make seed sowing easier. .

• A gardening yearbook with 55 pages of seasonal advice on maintaining food and flower gardens, plus advice on tools and equipment. Thrive has selected the best ideas and tips from other gardeners who have sight loss, month by month across the whole gardening year.

• A Buddy System that can put people who have sight loss in touch with other gardeners in their local area to inspire and support each other.

Thrive also has two free CDs for gardeners with sight loss – Keeping the garden gate open (66 minutes), which is full of inspirational stories from people who have continued gardening after sight loss, and Get gardening (14 minutes), which talks about the benefits of joining the National Blind Gardeners’ Club.

In addition to a wide range of free services, Thrive offers membership to The National Blind Gardeners’ Club for just £9 a year, Members of the club receive a quarterly magazine called Come Gardening with plant reviews, ideas for food and flower gardening, tool and equipment recommendations and features on readers’ gardens. Members have access to a specialist audio gardening library, receive a regular e-newsletter and get discounts on Thrive’s Getting on with Gardening books.

Thrive’s new website, www.carryongardening.org.uk, demonstrates easier ways to doing everyday gardening jobs with tried-and-tested gardening equipment and tools specifically for people who have sight loss. Advice is also available over the telephone, email or by post.

Lucy Morrell, Project Manager at Thrive, said "We are delighted to be able to offer such a wide range of free services to help people who have sight loss start or continue to enjoy gardening. We get such wonderful feedback from people that we work with and there are many more people out there who can share in the pleasures of gardening."

For more information on gardening for people who have sight loss, contact Thrive for the new leaflet called Do you enjoy gardening and have sight loss? by calling 0118 988 5688.