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Be a part of the future of Dilston Physic Garden
Dilston Physic Garden is a dedicated enterprise to educate on the awareness of medicinal plants for health and medicine. As a registered charity it receives no central funding and relies on donations in order to exist.
As a charity for education, our vision is to increase public and educational engagement with the natural world, heighten awareness of the importance of biodiversity and educate on the benefits of medicinal plants for health, medicine and in cutting-edge drug discovery, as well as utilise the 2-acre site in Northumberland as an outdoor space for wellbeing for the local community.
Your donation will help us raise public awareness of plant medicine as an overlooked indispensable knowledge. Using plant medicine and medicinal plants cannot be understated. It can help maintain individual health and prevent disease by supporting the immune, respiratory, circulatory and cardiovascular systems, as well as by supporting brain health. It can help treat many common ailments, such as allergies, digestive and skin disorders, insomnia, anxiety and depression. Plant medicine practice is unique and effective because it treats the individual and gets to the root cause of the problem. We aim to help bridge the gap that has grown between plant medicine and general medicine in the UK, by educating on the scientific research that shows exactly how plant medicine works to produce its effects, and how in head-to-head trials plant medicine is comparable to single drug medication but carries fewer if any side-effects such as addiction. We also aim to increase the evidence to support plant medicine by conducting controlled clinical trials on plant medicine to improve memory loss, insomnia and more.
Read about our current projects below .
How Your Donations Will Help
The garden currently has a number of ongoing projects that we are working to fund. Your donation, big or small, will make a difference.
You can learn more below about the current projects that we are fundraising for below.
If you do choose to donate, thank you! If there is a certain project that you wish to support please do let us know via email and we shall ensure your donation is allocated to this fund.
Within our shop we produce multiple botanical products ourselves, with the help of our wonderful volunteers – and we aim to use as many of our own locally grown herbs in our products as possible. With the development of our new tea plantation, the amount of herbs we produce has increased drastically, and we believe we are creating a much better quality of product as a result.
The logical continuation of this work is now to try and build a dedicated space to dry the plants we have grown. As our charity grows and we produce more exciting work, we are also finding we need more space. A small place to dry herbs may not seem like much, but it will be a tremendous help to the day-to-day work within the garden and provide a place for members of the community to experience volunteering for wellbeing.
Education is at the core of who we are as a charity. Following on from a successful pilot in schools, we are expanding our program of workshops and outreach.
Pupils get access to information and hands-on experiences with herbs and learn about the exciting subject of phytochemistry.
We are developing educational software and creating structured, informative, material linked with schools’ PCSHE curricula.
Pupils report having access to these workshops has enormous benefits to their physical and mental wellbeing. Eg. Increased concentration, self-nurturing, relaxation, and enjoyment in the natural world.
The current use and availability of our educational spaces and facilities are dictated by weather conditions. The classroom and WC cannot be utilised during the winter months due to lack of insulation, hot water or heating. Improvements to these facilities will allow us to better achieve our mission of education, with year-round educational visits and workshops.
Our improvement plan includes: insulating the current water supply and installing a boiler for hot water and heating in our Herbology House/Classroom, insulating the current WC and installing utilities to provide hot water and lighting alongside work to improve accessibility to the garden and facilities, allowing wheelchair access to the garden, WC and Herbology House.
Watering is key to growing plants well, this not only means providing the water our garden needs, but using it wisely.
To save time and labour on bigger or more water-demanding areas we would like to install a drip irrigation system. This system is the most water-efficient way to irrigate many different plants and will ensure we keep the garden green and blooming in the more frequent longer dry spells.
Support Our Current Projects
Write `I Confirm` below to confirm that you are a UK tax payer and wish Dilston Physic Garden to claim Gift Aid on all donations you have made in the last four years and any future donations you make.
What is Gift Aid?
Gift Aid is a scheme run by the government that enables charities to increase the value of donations made by reclaiming basic rate tax that has been paid on the gift. At the moment, we can claim 25p per £1 donated, so on a gift of £100, we will actually receive an extra £25, at no cost to the donor, which we then use to fund Dilston Physic Garden’s work.
To qualify for Gift Aid, you need to be a UK taxpayer and have paid enough tax to cover the amount of tax reclaimed by all charities on all your donations for each tax year (6th April one year to 5th April the next).
In order for Dilston Physic Garden to be able to claim Gift Aid on your donations, we need to have a valid Gift Aid Declaration from you. You can complete a Gift Aid declaration online, this is an automated form which you can complete at ‘check out’ each time you make a donation.