Dobbies announces Aylesbury community winner

Dobbies, the UK’s leading garden centre, has revealed the community and charity groups across the UK that will receive support to help transform, restore or start their indoor or outdoor green spaces this year, including Great Missenden Church of England School in Aylesbury.

Over 660 groups applied to Dobbies Community Gardens when it opened in March. Each Dobbies store selected their local project to support from the nominations that were made. Nominated projects from Aylesbury were invited along to the in-store Grow How session on Saturday 4 May when the winner was unveiled.

Great Missenden Church of England School will now receive a one-on-one session with Dobbies’ colleagues in the Aylesbury store to kick-start the activity, and the team will support the winning group right the way through their project. In addition to receiving products, tools and plants, there will be volunteer hours allocated to help bring the project to fruition and keep their outdoor space blooming.

Great Missenden Church of England School plan to use Dobbies' donation and advice to enhance their outdoor space and invest in new equipment for the pupils to use, with the aim being to improve pupils' wellbeing through gardening activities.

Recent research* from Dobbies by Censuswide found that 71% of Brits say being close to nature helps them relax, highlighting the importance of initiatives like Dobbies Community Gardens to help green spaces thrive.

Dobbies’ colleagues are passionate about gardens and plants, championing garden living all year round to create experiences that bring people and communities together.

Nick Anderson, Dobbies’ Operations Director, is thrilled with the response to Dobbies Community Gardens. He explained: “We are really pleased to have had so many community groups get in touch looking for support with their green spaces.

“The Aylesbury store had the responsibility of picking a community group to back this year, choosing Great Missenden Church of England School as its winner. We’re looking forward to seeing this outdoor green space flourish over the year.”

For more information about Dobbies work in the community and to see this year’s Dobbies Community Gardens’ winners, visit dobbies.com/community-gardens

*The research was conducted by Censuswide with 2007 natrep consumers in UK 16+ between 22 March-25 March 2024. Censuswide abide by and employ members of the Market Research Society, which is based on the ESOMAR principles and are members of The British Polling Council.