Urban gardening with Honest Tea

When the weather is hot and sunny my favourite way to spend time is being outdoors. We are so lucky that we have a great garden with space for the boys to enjoy and lots of room to grow plants and fruit. In fact I have rarely lived anywhere without an outdoor space so when I was invited to the mobile garden city in Stratford East I was really keen to go. The eyewatering early start was mitigated by the sunshine and some refreshing organic drinks to try.

The drinks company Honest has partnered with Groundwork to champion green spaces and urban gardening and to encourage everyone to connect with nature. I've lived in London for most of my life and I can see why new research has revealed that Londoners believe their daily life would be improved if they had easier access to green space, could spend more time outdoors and were able to grow their own herbs, fruit and vegetables.

We heard from Groundwork volunteers and staff about local school groups and families who come to the site to garden and grow food and local restuarants are also using produce grown here - we even harvested some rhubarb that was to be included in a menu later. TV presenter Julia Bradbury talked to us about the benefits of outdoor spaces and growing food and has created a new 'must have' item for my wish list - an outdoor shower. Who knew it was so easy to bring my favourite holiday feature to a suburban garden ?

Having taken a break for some fresh fruit and to try the organic fruit tea drinks we took part in a craft activity to upcycle the empty honest bottles into hanging planters. I'm not the best crafter, but even I managed to follow the instructions for this and I'm quite pleased with the finished item. With help I think my boys could make these and it is an excellent way to reuse a bottle.

I've heard about urban gardens, but to see a project for real was a wonderful insight into how invaluable green spaces are. This garden will be moving to Hackney Wick so the families who use it currently can still get there. I am delighted that HONEST® has partnered with Groundwork to champion green spaces and urban gardening and to encourage everyone to connect with nature.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post in conjunction with HONEST®