One in four adults reported feeling lonely at the start of 2026, but a charity in Lincoln holds the secret to growing a community and harvesting happiness, using the natural world as its playground.
Green Synergy, a gardening and social therapeutic horticulture charity in Lincoln, uses green spaces and gardening to support people through loneliness and create a community.
Ali Talbot, chief executive of Green Synergy, said: “The idea behind Green Synergy was really to try and bring urban gardening into the city landscape.
“There was no community garden at that point and the whole purpose really of the charity, is actually to improve people’s mental health and well-being through gardening and therapeutic horticulture, techniques, activities and programmes.”
Although it was formed as a small gardening group, by founder and former chief executive Mary Hollis in 2021, the charity has grown into a registered charity with two community gardens and numerous activities for members of the public – ranging from air fryer workshops to Monday lunch clubs.
Green Synergy has also won the best gardening and horticulture charity award for the East Midlands in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Come rain or shine, volunteers go out to the gardens, the 1.2-acre site at Roman Pavement (Hillside Garden), or the pocket garden off Tower Crescent in Lincoln (Ellie’s Memorial Garden), which are both open to the public to explore, enjoy, and reflect.
Mrs Talbot said: “Whether you have a physical or learning impairment or whether you are able bodied, gardening can be adapted in so many different ways for people, so they can actually thrive and improve their mental health and well-being.
“Now, sometimes that fresh air can be very wet. It can be very windy, as it has been over the last few days, but actually just that opportunity to connect with green spaces, connect with nature, experience the sound of leaves and plants waving in the wind, experience the benefit of sun when it shines, and the vitamin D that people derive.
“All of those things are good for the mind and body.”
While it may seem an unconventional way to improve people’s mental health and bring people together, Talbot explained the impact the charity has had on its volunteers:
“We’ve seen over 98% of confidence growth, we’ve seen 97% of well-being growth and improvement.
“But I think it’s also those treasured nuggets of quotes that we get from people, we’ve had people say this has changed their life, that they’ve built the confidence to be able to think that maybe they can move on to a job rather than staying at home. We’ve had one veteran that had not been out of the house for two years, and he’s now regularly coming to the sessions. So that, for us, is the is the reason we do what we do.”
Loneliness as a systemic issue
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) 23% of adults in the UK reported feeling lonely often, always, or some of the time, as of April 2026.
Loneliness is a natural human emotion, just as we experience happiness, anger, or any other reaction to the situation we are in, Tara Fisher explained.
Tara Fisher, 58, chief operating officer at the Marmalade Trust, said: “What we understand is that, as a natural human emotion, all loneliness is, is a signal. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.
“We often talk about being hungry. So, when you’re hungry, your brain will make your stomach rumble and you’ll be like, “oh, I need some food”. It’s a signal that you need to eat something, and that’s what loneliness is. It’s a signal that the connection you are experiencing is not meeting your needs.”
The Marmalade Trust is an award-winning UK charity dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness and encouraging connection among people.
Founded by Amy Perrin OBE, in 2013, the Marmalade Trust has reached people across the globe and brought attention to loneliness through their Loneliness Awareness Week.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of this campaign, as it continues to reduce stigma surrounding loneliness and support people to connect and grow.
Loneliness not only impacts your mental health but can impact you physically, increasing the risk of stroke or heart attack.
Fisher said that if left unaddressed, the effect of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, reducing your mortality by up to 26%, which in turn makes it a significant public health issue, as well as a societal one.
Alex Smith, 48, the founder and previous CEO of the Cares Family, an organisation reducing loneliness by building intergenerational communities and connection, said that loneliness is: “a natural human experience, but chronic loneliness, and systemic, structural loneliness at the individual human level, can be catastrophic.”
Loneliness continues to be an area of concern across the UK, which is why local organisation like Green Synergy are so important to bring people together and create an inclusive community.
Tara Fisher said: “Organisations that provide space for connection, that provide space for people to get support and to have opportunities, to talk about what they’re experiencing, what they’re feeling, are really, really important and really invaluable.”
