Programmes
Flagship 10-week programme for wellbeing and recovery
Resilience and Recovery
A bespoke, evidence-based programme supporting resilience, wellbeing and recovery for serving military personnel and veterans.
Resilience and Recovery is the Defence Gardens Scheme’s flagship programme, delivered over 10 weeks in a safe, outdoor setting. It is designed specifically for either serving military personnel or military veterans, with cohorts kept separate to ensure trusted, shared spaces. The programme uses gardening and nature-based activity to support wellbeing, connection and confidence in a light-touch, non-clinical environment.
How the Programme Works
Participants attend weekly facilitated sessions that combine:
Practical outdoor activity
Time in nature
Opportunities for social connection
Gentle facilitation and peer support
Participants engage at their own pace, with no pressure to disclose or perform.
Evidence-Informed Design
The programme is informed by independent evaluation and reflects what veterans consistently tell us works best:
VOLSH
Veteran-only
Outdoors
Light-touch
Social
Holistic
These principles align closely with best practice in green social prescribing and nature-based therapy.
Outcomes & Impact
Improved wellbeing
Participants report improved mood, confidence and emotional regulation
Reduced isolation
Regular social contact in a trusted peer group.
Stronger connection
Increased sense of belonging and purpose.
Sustained engagement
Many participants progress into further programmes or community activity.
Delivery & Partnerships
Resilience and Recovery is delivered in partnership with trusted community and heritage settings across the UK and can be commissioned for specific locations or populations.
One-day workshops for skills and social connection
Cultivate and Connect
One-day nature-based workshops offering practical skills and meaningful connection. Cultivate and Connect is a series of one-day, open-access workshops for members of the Armed Forces community. They offer an accessible introduction to gardening and outdoor activity, alongside opportunities to meet others with shared experience.
Who It’s For
Open to:
Serving personnel
Veterans
Family members and carers
The wider Armed Forces Community
No prior gardening experience is required.
What to Expect
Each workshop includes:
Hands-on gardening or outdoor activity
Informal, welcoming facilitation
Time to connect with others
A supportive, inclusive environment
Outcomes & Impact
Practical skills
Participants leave with skills they can use at home or in their community.
Social connection
Reduced isolation and increased confidence to engage with others.
Gateway to further support
Many participants go on to join longer programmes.
Booking & Commissioning
Workshops are delivered year-round at partner sites and can be commissioned as part of wellbeing events, Armed Forces Covenant activity or community programmes.
Training veterans as Community Growing Champions
Grow Your Own
A 10-week programme supporting veterans to develop skills, confidence and leadership as Community Growing Champions.
Grow Your Own is a 10-week practical gardening and leadership programme for military veterans. It is designed to support progression, purpose and contribution through community growing.
The programme equips veterans with practical skills and confidence, enabling them to play active roles in community spaces — as volunteers, peer leaders or Community Growing Champions.
Supporting the Veterans Strategy
Grow Your Own directly supports the Office for Veterans’ Affairs Veterans Strategy, helping ensure veterans are:
Supported through skill-building and wellbeing
Celebrated for their experience, contribution and leadership
Able to contribute meaningfully to their communities
How the Programme Works
Over ten weeks, participants develop:
Practical gardening and growing skills
Confidence working in shared spaces
Experience supporting and leading activity
Understanding of community growing projects
Outcomes & Impact
Practical skills
Transferable gardening and growing skills.
Community contribution
Veterans actively support and strengthen local green spaces.
Leadership and confidence
Participants step into mentoring and leadership roles.
Progression pathways
Volunteering, further training or paid roles.
Alignment with the Government’s Defence Review
Grow Your Own supports the Government’s Strategic Defence Review, particularly Chapter Six: Make Britain Safer, by:
Strengthening community resilience
Supporting veterans to contribute positively to civil society
Building skills, leadership and social cohesion at a local level
Through community growing, veterans play visible, valued roles in strengthening places and people.
Delivery & Commissioning
Grow Your Own is delivered in partnership with community gardens, heritage sites and local organisations and can be commissioned regionally or locally.
Seeds of Change - Criminal Justice System (CJS)
In Spring 2025, DGS was awarded a Veterans' Foundation Major Grant, to enable further development and evaluation of this 10-week, in-prison, programme and to include DGS becoming a City and Guilds Approved Centre. DGS will be delivering Level 2 Horticulture, at HMP Maghaberry, NI and by working with the other Major Grant holders to ensure cohesive and collaborative planning, move this delivery across to Scotland.
DGS are committed to the support and progression of Veterans who have found themselves part of the Criminal Justice System and are members of the Cobseo Justice Cluster.
Veterans' Oaks
DGS is proud to support Veterans' Oaks, a nationwide, community-led initiative to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two - historically marked as the 'oak anniversary'. Veterans' Oaks bridges past and future, uniting memory, education and commemoration with sustainability, urging us to honour history while protecting the world for generations to come. The act of planting is a tangible action of remembrance which also contributes to biodiversity, enriches our natural heritage, and helps fight climate change.
DGS will be planting and dedicating Veteran Oaks in all four Oak trees over the growing season:
Scotland: Operation Cairngorm
NI: Ashes to Gold
England: Northwest and Eden, Southwest
Please sign up to our events page to follow this programme.
