Background Community gardening has frequently been promoted as an activity that can improve wellbeing, and there have been recent efforts to include it within social prescribing offerings. These activities seem to align with a number of health imperatives: to increase time spent in green space, to be ‘person-centred’, and to reduce isolation and loneliness. They also appeal to broader desires to widen connection with the outdoors, wildlife, and community. The aim of this research was to understand the experiences of the users of these spaces, and to consider the place of social prescribing in the facilitation of these activities.

Methods This paper is informed by 13 months of ethnographic research at community gardening and growing spaces. The spaces were located in the north of England, with gardening sessions facilitated by small VCSE organisations. One of the regularly attended sessions was tailored directly towards those experiencing mental ill health. The research involved participant observation and interviewing, with a purposive sample (n = 33, aged 23–70) of garden attendees, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector practitioners, and practitioners associated with social prescribing pathways. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and fieldnotes were taken following each gardening session attended (approximately 3 per week). Data were imported into NVivo 12, and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results Community gardening became a part of the routines of attendees, for whom it provided opportunities to learn, socialise, be active, and give and receive support from practitioners and empathic others. For participants, the gardens were safe, flexible, and non-judgemental socio-ecological spaces. They valued the enduring therapeutic communities and garden spaces that developed over time at some of the sites, with support from skilled VCSE practitioners.

Conclusions This research suggests that community gardening can provide structure, enjoyment, activity, and connection for some of those who regularly participate. The question of how these spaces and communities can be sustained speaks to calls to consider both the long-term funding of socially-prescribed activities, and to recognise the labour of VCSE practitioners in delivering, funding, and planning them.