Community Care Farm: Cultivating confidence

SweetTree Fields Farm is a care farm in London that has been specially designed to create positive experiences within a safe, nurturing and social environment. We offer Horticultural Therapy activities ranging from gardening and horticulture, to woodwork and animal care, suitable for people of all ages and abilities.

Care farming, or horticultural therapy as it’s sometimes known, is an emerging field of clinical practice that recognises the benefits that interacting with animals, plants and greenery can bring. It has been shown to have many benefits for people with a range of care needs, and of all ages and abilities. It is also a great way to increase physical activity levels within a social environment and can be incredibly rewarding.

It can be very powerful on many levels and as a care provider, focused on stimulation, socialisation and helping people live their lives to the full, at SweetTree this was an interesting area for us to explore and in the summer of 2013, SweetTree Farming For All, a not for profit organisation, was launched.