Wellbeing in Quex Gardens
The Garden offers a welcoming space where nature, creativity and community come together to make gardening accessible to all.
Spending time in gardens is proven to support mental health, reduce stress and strengthen social connections.
Quex Gardens plays a vital role in providing these benefits to our team of volunteer gardeners and community groups throughout the week. The gardens offer a calm space, supporting wellbeing through social and therapeutic horticulture.
Initiatives such as the Sunshine Project, which has been supported by national funding to address loneliness and social isolation, have opened the garden beyond horticulture, through workshops and wellbeing activities that encourage engagement with the natural world.
Weekly yoga, clay studio sessions and food events have provided structured group sessions, the gardens acting as a nurturing and safe space, giving the opportunity to reconnect with nature and with each other, while taking part in meaningful garden related activities.
Wellbeing Days
The Wellbeing Days held in 2025 brought all these activities together in a vibrant programme of events for our public visitors, showcasing how Quex Gardens supports health and happiness.
Visitors enjoyed yoga sessions on the lawns, creative workshops exploring plants and the sounds of the garden, cooking demonstrations and opportunities to explore the gardens at their own pace. These photographs from the days capture moments of calm, creativity and connection, reflecting the positive impact of shared experiences in a beautiful, historic landscape…
Yoga in the Gardens
Weekly yoga sessions in Quex Gardens invite our Sunshine Projects participants to experience gentle movement and mindful breathing using the sheltered spaces on the pleasure ground lawns or Winter Garden Glasshouse.
Practising outdoors enhances the calming effects of yoga, encouraging a deeper sense of relaxation and grounding. These sessions are designed to be inclusive and welcoming, offering a shared experience that supports both physical and mental wellbeing while fostering a sense of belonging within the group.
Ceramics and Creative Making
Hands-on ceramics workshops provide a tactile, creative outlet that supports focus, confidence and self-expression.
Working with clay encourages mindfulness and patience, while the social setting allows participants to connect informally with others.
Cooking and Seasonal Food
Our Walled Garden, with its range of glasshouses, is a brilliant microclimate for food growing and would have provided the very finest produce for the family once living in Quex House.
Celebrating this space with a range of seasonal food crops provides fruit and vegetables used in our partnership with Angela’s of Margate and has allowed us to develop the food offer. Grant aid has helped create an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven.
Cooking activities at Quex Gardens celebrate seasonal ingredients and shared experiences around food. These sessions promote practical skills, healthy habits and social interaction. Preparing and enjoying food together helps build confidence and connection, reinforcing the link between nourishment, nature and wellbeing.
Our gardens will take centre stage during the centenary year, fresh spring planting, new ways to explore with our updated garden interpretation and relaxed family wellbeing days during the summer holidays.
We’re also delighted to be teaming up with Angela’s of Margate for a series of seasonal suppers in the summer and inviting you to enjoy the gardens in new ways.
Check our ‘What’s On Guide’ for details of upcoming visitor wellbeing events.
