The "Good Life" is coming to the Gartnavel campus with a Sow and Grow initiative that could spread to other NHS sites throughout Glasgow and Clyde.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had joined forces with urban food growing company SAGE (Sow and Grow Everywhere) to instal “pop-up” growing cubes at Gartnavel Royal Hospital.

The aim is to use this installation as a pilot on how NHS sites can turn some of their green space into vegetable plots with both staff and patients getting involved in the project.

Catriona Renfrew, Director of Corporate Planning and Policy, has been instrumental in getting the pilot project organised. A keen gardener herself she is delighted that NHS green space is being cultivated to grow food.

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She said: "There is a big demand for allotments in and around Glasgow and when a number of our staff raised the issue of developing better use of our green space we got in touch with SAGE.

"Funding was successfully applied for from the Forestry Commission and endowments to get the project going. I’m sure that the patients who get involved with the allotments will benefit therapeutically and also enjoy a sense of achievement from growing food that is going to end up on their dinner plates."

Staff and patients will work with the SAGE team made up of a project development officer and community gardeners to cultivate the growing cubes which have been handcrafted from salvaged wood which otherwise would be going to landfill.

Kathryn VandenBerg, SAGE project co-ordinator, said: "The project will not only provide patients with healthy food but also physical exercise.

"I’m really excited to be working with NHSGGC to create this vibrant growing space on the Gartnavel site."

(GK)