Urban Growth Project Highlights

Creating beautiful, biodiverse community green spaces in London.

Tudor gardens sensory garden supported living

Design, Transformation & Workshops

Sensory Garden for Supported Living

We designed and built a sensory garden for residents with SEN in sheltered accommodation in Brent. It includes a greenhouse and garden room, pond, and raised beds planted to provide engagement in all seasons.

Throughout 2023 we ran workshops with residents to enable them and their carers to make the most of the space.

Learn more

Community Engagement and Empowerment

Greening Westminster Capacity Building

Westminster City Council invited us to enable the deployment of the Greening Westminster programme, as one of three expert capacity building organisations. Residents are invited to pitch ideas that will make public spaces near them better for people and nature, and grants are awarded to the winners. We helped to assess the applicants and are supporting two winning groups to make their dreams a reality. We are reviewing and updating designs and budgets, quantity specifying, connecting residents to the best suppliers, writing schedules of work, risk assessments and method statements.

Learn more

Community Engagement & Empowerment

ZipCar at the Brixton Orchard

Our longstanding work at this south London landmark has been massively enriched thanks to our partnership with ZipCar. Their support has enabled us to target specific groups who could most benefit from the therapeutic potential of this wild oasis in the heart of Brixton.

In 2022-23 we hosted groups from Mosaic Clubhouse, Lambeth Early Action Partnership and the Baytree Centre, delivering bespoke workshop designed specially for their service users. This is a perfect compliment to the weekly schedule of open-access volunteering sessions we run there thanks to the Brixton Business Improvement District.

Learn more

Design & Transformation

Gaia’s Garden, St Pauls

We were approached by Play Nice in April ‘21 to design and build a temporary multifunctional urban garden event space in the heart of the city overlooking St Paul’s called Gaia’s Garden.

We used reclaimed & re-useable materials so that the whole site could be disassembled and distributed to gardens elsewhere in London. We coordinated scores of volunteers to make the build happen in double quick time, and cared for the plants throughout the hot dry spell of summer.

Learn more

Design, Transformation & Workshops

Linda McCartney Foods’ Garden

We created a food and biodiversity garden in the centre of a south London estate, sponsored by the much-loved vegetarian brand Linda McCartney Foods, for its 30th anniversary.

We created new food growing beds using recycled pallets, expanded the existing planting with a mini orchard and forest garden, and embedded sustainable gardening infrastructure to enable rainwater harvesting, composting and biodiversity habitats.

Learn more

Design, Transformation & Maintenance

Seven Dials, Covent Garden

Coming out of the pandemic, we were commissioned to celebrate a return to normality in the West End - theatres, food, drink and shopping! In a homage to all the things we had missed, we deconstructed and planted up a huge range of goods destined for landfill - an old piano, vintage luggage, beer barrels, threadbare theatre seats and more.

We maintained the planting throughout the busy season, replanting gaps created where people had sat on the seats or lovingly tinkled on the piano’s crumbling keys.

Learn more

Design, Transformation & Workshops

Nature Needs Heroes with Timberland in Croydon

We transformed a derelict courtyard into a multi-functional community garden in Thornton Heath, as part of Timberland’s ‘Nature Needs Heroes’ campaign with musician Loyle Carner and partners Timberland, Croydon Council and National Park City.

The huge site presented a range of design challenges - low light, high winds, on a main road, no easy water source. And then the pandemic struck! But our strong partnerships and the hard work of local resident volunteers made it a success. Design highlights include moveable planters that enable a local market or ad hoc events to be hosted in a flexible green public space.

Learn more