The Chelsea Flower Show reminds us that the outdoors belongs to everyone

Chelsea Flower Show should remind us that the outdoors is not a luxury – it belongs to everyone

The grey is lifting. And the Chelsea Flower Show is returning to London.

Chelsea is glamorous. It is beautiful. But beneath the spectacle, the champagne and the show gardens lies something much older, simpler and more universal: the human need to be outside.

Gardening, at its best, is primal and democratic. Hands in soil. Face in the air. A patch of green. A shared bench. A moment of peace.

This year, the Belonging Forum, in partnership with Sightsavers, has helped bring The Sightsavers Garden: We Start With Sight But We Don’t Stop There to RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. We’ve built a sensory garden designed not just to be looked at but to be entered, touched, heard, and experienced. It includes wheelchair access, level surfaces and audio description for visitors with visual impairments.

In other words, it asks a question that should matter far beyond Chelsea: who gets to enjoy nature?

There is war in the Middle East. British politics feels trapped in permanent convulsion. Families are still counting every pound at the supermarket till. The national mood is tired, anxious and brittle.

And yet, perhaps that is exactly why we should talk about gardening.

When the world becomes too loud, the outdoors is still there. A tree does not ask who you voted for. A herb pot does not care how much you earn. A community garden can be one of the last places where people meet without needing to buy something, prove something or perform for anyone.

The evidence is no longer merely sentimental. NHS England has backed green social prescribing, connecting people with nature-based activities to support mental and physical health. Research has linked access to green and blue spaces with better mental wellbeing. The Mental Health Foundation has also made clear that our relationship with nature can play a vital role in preventing distress.

So this is not a fluffy distraction from the news agenda. It is part of it.

Because access to nature is not equal. The people who most need calm, space and connection are often the least likely to get it: disabled people, people in poor health, low-income families, lonely older people, and children growing up in concrete neighbourhoods.

The Belonging Forum’s 2026 Belonging Barometer makes uncomfortable reading. Only 42% of people say they completely or mostly belong. More than one in five say they do not really belong, or do not belong at all. Disabled people are three times more likely to feel that they do not belong.

The same inequality appears in access to nature. Only 40% of people visit green or natural spaces weekly. Among disabled people, that falls to 33%. For those in poor physical health, it is just 25%.

That is the quiet scandal behind the pretty postcards of British summer.

But there is hope here, too. The Barometer finds disabled people are slightly more likely than non-disabled people to garden as a hobby. The desire is there. The barrier is access.

So let’s get back to basics. In hard times, we need food, shelter, healthcare and security. But we also need belonging. We need places where the mind can unclench. Parks that are safe. Gardens that are open. Pavements that lead somewhere green. Community spaces where strangers become neighbours.

Gardening will not stop wars or fix Westminster. But it can help uplift people. In times like these, that is essential.

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Kim Samuel is the founder of the Belonging Forum.

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