Schools and businesses have been given 250 plants from the Chelsea Flower Show to help bring more colour to Ebbsfleet Garden City.

The plants have been distributed around seven locations, some of which are in the Edible Ebbsfleet scheme which allows members of the public to pick fruit and veg for free to encourage healthy eating.

The plants were donated as part of the show’s re-use programme, while the Woodland Trust gifted fruit trees to the development.

They were taken to Cherry Orchard and Knockhall primary schools, Ebbsfleet Academy, Ebbsfleet International, Eastgate community centre and the two edible gardens set up in the Edible Ebbsfleet scheme at Swanscombe community garden and No Walls Gardens in Northfleet.

Beetroot, cabbage, peas and strawberries will now be grown at the gardens with blooms planted including allium, delphinium and lupin.

Kevin McGeough, director of Ebbsfleet Garden City’s Healthy New Towns project, said: “The community couldn’t wait to get involved in this exciting project. And the donation from the Chelsea Flower Show means many more members of the public will enjoy free, healthy fruit and veg in the weeks and months to come.”

Ebbsfleet is the largest of ten designated NHS England healthy new towns and is a joint project with Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley Clinical Commissioning Group and Ebbsfleet Development Corporation.

A number of innovative new ideas are already up and running in addition to the edible gardens, including an app where people can be rewarded with shopping vouchers for being active and a Fitbit scheme where members of the public have their fitness levels monitored.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show's re-use scheme is run by Wayward, a landscape, art and architecture practice based in London — an award-winning collective of designers, artists and urban growers.

The initiative is part of the House of Wayward Plants, a long-term project that facilitates large-scale community plant exchanges and adoption events for unwanted plants.

To find out more about Ebbsfleet Garden City Healthy New Towns visit ebbsfleetdc.org.uk/healthynewtowns/