Making horticulture accessible to everyone
In a recent Purpose Lab session, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) explored with students what its mission to be there for everybody on their lifelong adventures with gardening means in practice, and how horticulture can be made more accessible and relevant to a wider audience.
The discussion focused on what horticulture is (and how it relates to everyday gardening), how it makes people feel, and how it connects to green careers and skills development.
Students consistently understood horticulture as broader and more systemic than gardening-as-a-hobby. They described it as a way to better understand ecosystems, improve environmental outcomes, and reconnect with food production and natural cycles.
The clear takeaway was that simple, plain-English definitions matter, particularly when horticulture is positioned as a broad field spanning hands-on work, science, design, education, community programmes, sustainability and climate action.
Relevance was frequently framed through wellbeing and the environment. Students linked horticulture directly to sustainability, describing that “Horticulture helps to make the world cleaner and a beautiful place,” and that “in a society where the focus is shifting from the preservation of the environment horticulture is very important.”
Students suggested that the RHS and horticulture remain under-explained to many young people, indicating a need for stronger visibility and clearer messaging about what the RHS does and who it is for.
Wellbeing emerged as a strong point of connection. Students described gardening and horticulture as calming, grounding and restorative, with comments including: “The exposure to sunlight, physical activity, and watching things grow really boosts my mental health” and “It helps me reconnect with nature and feel lighter of stress.”
The session also reinforced horticulture’s potential as a pathway for green careers. Students described it as a broad sector embedded in climate adaptation and sustainability, spanning production, design, conservation, education and community engagement.
Access and inclusion were a recurring theme throughout the session. Students referenced differing access to green space and the practical realities of time, money and housing. The RHS acknowledged these constraints and framed accessibility as central to future programme design, including the fact that physical access to gardens or sites can be geographically uneven. This aligns with student feedback that horticulture can feel meaningful and attractive, but that routes in are not always obvious.
Purpose Lab students were keen for the RHS to: use a simple, consistent definition that frames horticulture as wider than gardening as a hobby; keep wellbeing front and centre but pair it with practical entry routes for those without gardens or confidence to start; build sustained outreach that makes the breadth of horticultural roles and progression routes visible and tangible; and link horticulture explicitly to climate action, community benefit and purpose-driven work to attract and retain young people.
Overall, the session showed that when horticulture is explained in clear, modern terms, young people quickly see its relevance for wellbeing, climate action and careers. For the RHS, the priority is to turn that interest into participation by making routes in more visible, practical and inclusive.
