Have you ever thought to yourself about how a small patch of grass could benefit from some more flowers, or wondered how you could utilise an abandoned spot where you live to grow fresh herbs for dinner?
Well, this is what ‘Inner City Seeds’ – a community gardening group whose aims are to tackle social isolation and improve mental wellbeing – has been doing across urban communities in Plymouth for the past four years. From teaching you how to grow your own vegetables, to creating beautiful flowering displays that attract local pollinators; Inner City Seeds volunteers have been taking over unlikely spots, to help local wildlife thrive and to connect communities.
Last Summer Inner City Seeds, The Village Hub, Hope in the Heart and the Community Climate Centre formed ‘The Wildlife Corridor Project’ collective, and with thanks to funding from Plymouth Octopus Project, created a Summer long series of educational, therapeutic and practical workshops for the Stoke community, teaching everything you need to know about turning your own urban space, however small, into a wildlife paradise.
As part of this project Inner City Seeds took over the alleyway behind The Village Hub and turned it into a Wildlife Corridor! Volunteers created bug hotels, vertical planters, learnt how to use scythes (thanks to the Flax Project), made nettle compost, helped grow and swap plants, created a planter out of donated drainpipes as well as creating a Mini Wildlife Corridor Library for books!
If you would like to learn more about how you can green up your own urban space pop along to their Wildlife Corridor Open Day on the 13th of January, 4pm – 6pm inside The Village Hub, where you can have a tour of the project, hear from volunteers and other local wildlife projects, enter the Wildlife Raffel, collect a Wildlife Corridor starter kit (limited numbers available on the day) take part in an origami butterfly workshop and listen to drumming music from ‘Celebrate your Heartbeat’.
This is a family friendly event with warm soup and refreshments available on the day.
Contact Inner City Seeds to find out what projects they have lined up in the new year that you could get involved in by emailing Helen at: innercityseeds@gmail.com
