GROW WILD IN NORTH BELFAST: Prestigious Award for new Duncairn Garden Project
We are so happy to announce that the Duncairn has been chosen as a participant of this year’s Grow Wild community programme, to transform our outdoor green and grey spaces for the benefit of people and wildlife in North Belfast. This grant will enable us to start this journey of transformation, which will eventually see the outdoor spaces around the centre become an oasis for wildlife, nature and the local community.
Grow Wild is a community outreach programme of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. RGB Kew is a leader in science and education, with a vision of a world that sees plants and fungi being more understood, valued and conserved. The programme (that saw 250+ applications this year!) supports groups to transform urban spaces for the benefit of people and wildlife by championing native plants and fungi.
This new project is rooted in the ethos that a healthy planet makes a healthy community - that we are interconnected with our environments, not separate to it. The garden will be a space for learning, creativity, caring, wellbeing, reflection, community-building - as well as growing and eating!
Cultivating community, alongside food and flowers, we will be announcing activities around the fledgling garden over the coming weeks and months - including planting and growing workshops, creative workshops, events and more. Keep an eye on our socials or sign up to our newsletter via the website.
This project will be long term and will take small steps at a time to ensure that it’s sustainable and community-led. The Grow Wild initiative also involves online workshops, information sharing and peer-learning and we’re so excited to get to know more about other garden and wildlife projects going on all around the North and across the waters.
We are also lucky to have GROW NI on board to guide is in the development of the garden. GROW NI are a charity working with communities around Belfast to improve health, wellbeing and social connections through community gardening. They take care, alongside wonderful volunteers, of the Waterworks community garden and we are so excited to join the wonderful network of already existing Community Gardens all around the city - North, South, East and West.
We are over the moon that the Grow Wild team saw the potential that we see in this space and thank them for this grant and ongoing encouragement.
This project is supported by Grow Wild, the national outreach programme of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Grow Wild is a community programme that supports groups to transform urban spaces for the benefit of people and wildlife by championing native plants and fungi.
