Meet the 2023 Grow Wild Community Groups

We have recently inducted a new cohort into the Grow Wild family as part of the 2023 Grow Wild Community programme. Learn about the projects transforming urban spaces across the UK to protect and celebrate UK native plants.

Astor Secondary School 

Astor Secondary School is a specialist college for the arts in Dover. They plan to transform an unloved area next to their SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) offices into a multi-sensory space.  

The project will involve pupils in every stage of planning and implementation, enabling them to gain experience of growing and learn about nature and environmental issues.  

‘Our ethos at Astor is to provide a quality, inclusive education for all pupils of all abilities, including those identified with challenges, needs or disadvantages, resulting in happy, engaged, motivated learners and staff.’ 

Broomhouse Community Growing Association

Broomhouse Community Growing Association is a group of residents from Broomhouse in Edinburgh, who manage a local growing site to provide produce for the local community. 

The group have recently adopted a second site which they plan to sensitively develop into a community orchard, leaving wilder areas for nature, planting fruit trees and adding colour through wildflowers. The group will be running planting workshops, engaging new local volunteers and connecting with the local school. 

‘Our goal is to establish a community run market gardening project by and for the people of Broomhouse’ 

Group partners - supported by Space and Wester Hailes Growing Communities who are delivering free community meals using fresh produce from the Broomhouse Growing Association garden. 

Global Gardens Project

Global Gardens is a community growing project based in Cardiff. The group hosts twice-weekly gardening sessions at Flaxland Allotments, which aim to support community integration and community-based learning about wildlife-friendly organic gardening.

The group plan to transform an unloved area of a community allotment into a wildlife friendly, therapeutic sensory garden by creating new raised beds, installing information signage in range of languages, and running nature-based workshops. 

‘Our vision is to create a growing space that supports community-based sharing of food and cultures.’ 

Group partners - Global Gardens operate under the umbrella of the Trinity Project, a charity supporting sanctuary seekers and others in need in the Cardiff area. 

Love Heaton Norris 

Love Heaton Norris works with local communities in Heaton Norris, Stockport to create a sense of community, encourage civic pride and promote the region’s great history and heritage. 

The group’s community project will be transforming a large city centre brownfield site into a wildlife haven and community space, including wildflower planting and a ‘scrape’ (seasonal damp grassland area, to support birds, insects and other wildlife). 

‘Our aim is to champion all things Heaton Norris and make it a better place to live, work and play.’ 

Group partners - Love Heaton Norris is an umbrella group that includes three other local groups: Friends of Heaton Norris Parks, Friends of Dodge Hill and SPARC (Stockport Progress and Recovery Centre), a Mental Health Charity. 

Ralph Thoresby School 

Ralph Thoresby School in Leeds is using their grant to support a collaborative, intergenerational project with the Adult Social Care team at nearby Holt Park Leisure Centre. Set up in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project supports pupils struggling with their mental health, giving them time away from the classroom to connect with nature and other people.  

Their Growing Wellbeing project takes place in the leisure centre garden and the team hope to expand the project to include more pupils and families, but they lack funding to enhance the space. The grant will enable them to create new planting beds, a herb garden and wildflower areas to encourage wildlife, alongside nature-based craft workshops.   

At Ralph Thoresby School we aim to create an inspiring place to learn and build strong community links’ 

Group partners - Adult Social Care team at nearby Holt Park Leisure Centre. 

St Vincent's Social Enterprise 

St Vincent's Social Enterprise provides free and confidential services including debt and housing advice, training, migrant support, and food, to people in Bradford. 

The organisation has a newly established garden which is currently a bare space lacking plants and wildlife. The group will use their grant to make the site more accessible by creating a raised planting bed, hosting regular gardening clubs, creating a sensory garden, and growing wildflowers, as well as supporting wildlife with hedgerows and bug hotels. 

‘Our services help to reduce the effects of poverty on local people. With the cost of living rising, people need our support more than ever.’ 

Women's Environmental Network (Wen) 

Wen fights global problems around gender, health, equality and our environment by taking action on issues affecting our bodies, homes and neighbourhoods.   

WEN has been working alongside communities in Tower Hamlets, London at the Limborough Hub, for over five years, hosting workshops on healthy cooking, gardening and craft activities. The hub and garden space became neglected during covid-19 lockdowns, but the group plans to revitalise these areas into a wildlife haven.

They hope to do this through planting sessions to establish wildflowers, fruit bushes and hedgerows, alongside workshops with local residents on the importance of UK native plants and pollinators.  

‘Wen acts to achieve equality, justice and joy.’ 

Group partners - The hub and garden space is owned and supported by Poplar HARCA, Wen’s housing association. partner