07 October 2021

By Sam Peters - co-founder of Planted.

Planted was delighted to support a local community rewilding project as our wildflower television studio helped transform a strip of previously derelict land on a north London housing estate.

With Planted’s stated aim of repurposing or recycling all the stands at the event, we were delighted when a group of local residents from the Bemerton Estate secured a £500 council grant which enabled us to provide more than 60sqm of wild meadow in kind courtesy of Pictorial Meadows.

“I love gardening and nature but I live in a one-bedroom flat with just a small balcony so it’s hard enough just to pot my plants.” Said Geoff Idun, one of the local residents.

“During lockdown the only thing I could do was to stare out of my window. The view was a patch of green on Bemerton council estate. It was really unloved - patchy grass and people would dump stuff on it, leave their litter and not even bother to pick up their dog poo.

“The council were giving out £500 grants to people who had an idea for making our neighbourhood greener so a few of us got together to apply and were successful.

“On our wish list was a wild flower meadow on that green. The contrast next to high-rises is visually stunning and the bees and butterflies love the flowers.”

Planted’s living wall studio, built in associated with HTA design and Pictorial Meadow, had over the previous days played host to our six-part talks programme entitled “delivering greener cities in a post-pandemic world” with a dedicated talk on how to rewild derelict urban spaces.

And as the launch event at King’s Cross closed down last Sunday, a team of five volunteers helped strip the turf from the studio walls before transporting it to nearby Barnsbury where more than 30 local volunteers helped transform a derelict plot of land over three days into a wild meadow by a children’s library.

"The thing that was so nice about the weekend is that neighbours who had never talked to each other before can now walk down the street and say hello to each other by name," said one volunteer.

“Before the space was a proper dumping ground, and the thing is people treat space like that with how it looks. Now I hope people don't dump litter on it, and it's nice for the primary school kids who walk to the library to go past something nice and colourful that lets them connect to nature.”

The show of community spirit, which will enable local residents to reconnect with nature while improving biodiversity over the coming years, was the perfect way for Planted to close its first major event.

“It was amazing to see so many people mobilise to ensure these beautiful wildflowers will live on long beyond our first event,” said Planted co-founder Deborah Spencer.

“Planting pollinator friendly flowers is such a simple way to encourage biodiversity and we’re delighted our meadow can now live on and help nature and people in the local community.”