4th April 2013: How We Grow; My Life, My Garden by Nim Kibbler

Name of speaker and subject:

Nim Kibbler and Volunteers Edinburgh Garden Partners

Title of talk:

How we grow: My life, my garden

Edinburgh Garden Partners at the Scottish parliament

Bullet points of what you would like to cover:

  • How and why we should garden in an urban environment
  • How this supports metal wellbeing and the recovery process of mental health difficulties
  • Potentially the support that can be offered to areas of our lives such as sustainable living, educating your children and sense of community.

Suggested you-tube links, websites and / or texts where
further information may be found:

A few words about you and your passion:

I grew up in rural East Yorkshire, surrounded by chicken farms, large swathes of arable crops and power stations. I’ve worked in various jobs but the main of my work for the last 4 yeas has been surrounding communities and agriculture. I worked in City Farm’s overseeing youth projects that taught animal husbandry to teens. I’ve also worked with young adults who’ve found themselves homeless. I my current work I support older and disabled people across Edinburgh find help in the shape of a volunteer gardener.
Mental wellbeing affects everyone’s life, relationships and ability to thrive in the working world. When my mental wellbeing is not as resilient as I need it to be I turn to my passions. I re-educate myself in skills that I love that allow me grow as a person. For the last 3 years this has been growing some of my own food and looking after a small patch of land in South Edinburgh.
This land, my garden, is a key part of my mental wellbeing toolkit and is how I’ve maintained myself resilience in times of trouble. I hope to also introduce the audience of the evening to others whose garden supports their lives or their key values. Whether this is about educating their children about where food comes from, living in a sustainable/environmentally protective place or connecting communities.

A few lines about the history of your subject:

Gardens and food production are key features in everyone’s lives. With nearly 2 thirds of the worlds populations living in cities today is there something that we missing from our rural heritages. Gardening and its therapeutic benefits have been used for years to help those affected by physical and mental health problems.