NHS staff are growing edible plants, including herbs and chilli plants, as part of a project aimed at promoting wellbeing, biodiversity and creativity.
Sixty employees have volunteered to take part in the Growing Calm programme, which promotes mental health, sustainable food habits, and a stronger connection to nature.
The project encourages creativity and connection to colleagues through decorating plant pots, writing letters, and documenting the growing process. It could create up to 360 new plants, including basil, rocket, coriander and sunflower, at staff members’ homes in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Aberdeen.
Collective wellbeing
Participants are also invited to share photos, reflections, and creative works through a shared digital noticeboard, turning private moments of growing into collective wellbeing. Growing Calm will also offer the NHS insight into the role which growing food can play in wellbeing.
Staff from NHS 24 and NHS Tayside are using kits designed by Design HOPES, an initiative striving to create a more sustainable health and social care ecosystem across Scotland and a greener NHS system. Strathclyde is the lead higher education institution in DesignHOPES, which also involves the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and Abertay University.
The kits contain six seeds, soil, three pots with surrounds, sticks, twine, planting instructions, a tote bag and paint. The pots and seeds have been donated by Dundee-based community garden Campy Growers, giving previously used materials a second life and preventing plastic waste from going to landfill.
Laura MacLean, a Strathclyde Research Associate with DesignHOPES, said:
This project is about more than just plants. It’s about slowing down, creating small moments of joy, and rediscovering what it means to care for our environment, our colleagues and ourselves.
NHS 24 regularly engages with community projects and partnering with DesignHOPES has offered an opportunity to support its staff members who might not have considered growing food before, as well as to assess the impacts of the project on their health and wellbeing.
Dr Ron Cook, NHS 24’s medical director and sustainability lead, said: “NHS 24 are delighted to again be working with partners DesignHOPES and wish to say thank you for the support of the Campy Growers.
“Our amazing staff support patients all over Scotland 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and projects such as this help our team maintain good mental health by promoting creativity and connection but also emphasising the importance of caring for not only for ourselves, but also our environment. As a provider of mental health services in Scotland, we look forward to learning more about how growing food can help enhance health and wellbeing for everyone.”
NHS staff have responded positively to taking part in Growing Calm, with comments including: “This was a great nature and bonding activity”; “We enjoyed watching the seeds sprout and grow. This was a happy and relaxing experience,” and “I was proud to see my green shoots.”
Design HOPES is part of the Future Observatory programme of the Design Museum and the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council.