Sheila Jones, from Preston has been chosen to receive a year’s worth of free lawn treatments to help her maintain the sanctuary she’s worked hard to create.

Nominated by her loving daughter Sam, Sheila will now benefit from a garden transformation just in time for summer.

The UK lawn care service, GreenThumb, will be treating Sheila’s lawn as part of their ‘Share The Lawn Love’ campaign which will now see them treat over 160 lawns nationwide, free of charge in 2023.

Sheila’s daughter nominated her mum for the lawn treatments as a thank you for the support and care she has shown her over the last few years whilst struggling with her health.

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Sheila has a huge passion for gardening but needs help maintaining it. She said: “I am so pleased and excited that my daughter Sam nominated me for this lawn treatment and can’t wait to see what wonders green thumb can perform on my lawn.”

This inaugural campaign generated over 700 nominations with the successful nominees, including Sheila, now set to receive a generous whole year of treatments from lawn care specialists.

Paul Edwards, Managing Director at GreenThumb, commented: “With everything that’s happening in the world outside our control, more and more people are turning to their gardens, local green spaces and nature for quite literal grounding.

“We’re proud to be able to help local people just like Sheila, at a time when transforming lawns into green sanctuaries will have an even greater impact on the wellbeing of the recipients.”

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In partnership with the National Garden Scheme and Scotland’s Gardens Scheme, GreenThumb are advocates for the physical and mental health benefits gardens provide and are hoping this campaign will allow them to spread the personal and sustainable wins that green spaces offer.

Paul continued: “Lawns are so much more than just a carpet of grass, they provide both personal and social spaces for relaxation and recovery, happy places to unwind or share with friends and family, which is why it’s so important to look after them, because they look after us.”

All nominees were carefully selected by volunteers of Scotland’s Gardens Scheme or the National Garden Scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Preston North branch added: “The Covid-19 pandemic gave us all a greater appreciation of the positive benefits gardens provide and because of that, we’re now even more committed to helping people maintain their green spaces, ensuring they are spaces of escapism and wellbeing.”

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These organisations raise money for nursing and health charities through the opening of private gardens; charging affordable admissions and serving tea and cake to raise funds for the likes of Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie and the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland.

The nomination process saw communal green spaces in high demand for transformations, with the likes of schools, churches and sports grounds receiving 23 per cent of nominations in the hope of enriching the local community.

The campaign also saw plenty of nominations for deserving neighbours, with many people stating they’d grown closer as a result of the pandemic and now wanted to lend a helping hand.

Perhaps unsurprisingly though, family and friends nominating their loved ones was the most common occurrence with almost three quarters (71 per cent) off all nominations keen to give back to those closest to them for a whole host of heart warming reasons.

For more information on the Share The Lawn Love campaign, visit the GreenThumb website.

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