Growing Raglan : Rewilding Camden

The idea

In partnership with Camden Council, Transition Kentish Town and Climate Emergency Camden (CEC) , this project is the first community based rewilding project on a council estate in Camden.

What we'll deliver

Plant fruit trees to create a community orchard :

Plant a boundary hedgerow

Plant Wildflower Native Enriched Turf

Allow the natural meadow to reestablish

Creating community cohesion through events and improve well being

Create a socially inclusive space

Address the climate and ecological Emergency in Camden

Rewild and increase the biodiversity of the estate

Turn unused ground into productive social space

Extend the season of flowering through bulb plantings

Why it's a great idea

This pilot community rewilding project is the first to take place on a council estate in LB Camden. Rewilding Camden aims to turn every spare unused patch of ground into a productive and socially inclusive space. This project is a crucial element in the creation of a web of well being. It will help address the Climate and Ecological Emergency in Camden.

We plan over the next five years to scale the project to rewild all the spare ground on council estates in LB Camden.

Steps to get it done

A regular and annual fruit picking and juicing event on site for the estate residents

An observed increase in the numbers and varieties of butterflies, wasps and bees

An increase in the biodiversity of the varieties of wildflowers

LB Camden have already agreed to provide labour via Green Gym and maintenance contractors to ensure the implementation and long term success. This amounts to a considerable investment.

We are seeking match funding for the trees, turf , bulbs and climbers.

Location

By Transition Kentish Town

Transition Kentish Town is a community group. It i... Learn More

About

Hello Rewilding Camden supporter/friend, Our Growing Raglan project has been fully funded thanks to you! We strongly believe that this project is as much about growing community, as it rewilding - hence the name Growing Raglan: Growing community. It was so inspiring at our first Growing Raglan event to see teenagers chopping apples with knives and using the apple press to make juice, and residents all coming together to discuss fruit trees. There was a lovely moment when a resident told us that although she and her family did not have much money, they had clubbed together to give us some money to buy a plum tree. We are going to plant a plum and pear tree outside her window. People who have lived next to each other for many years were given the opportunity to meet and talk to each other for the very fist time. The residents on the estate have already asked for a further area of the grounds to adopt a ‘relaxed mowing’ regime. This means, no regular mowing and cutting the grass only three times a year. By reducing regular mowing, wildflowers will grow within a few weeks. We would like as many public spaces as possible in Camden to adopt a relaxed mowing regime. With 97% of UK wildflower gone, it is so important that we encourage wildflowers and therefore insect populations wherever possible. Dates for your diary: DO COME AND JOIN US! Thursday October 31st. 10:30-2:30pm. Come and help create our wildflower meadow. The grounds work on the Growing Raglan meadow project is now complete. The next community event will take place on October 31st, when together with TCV/Green Gym, we will be laying 70sqm of wildflower turf full of native flowers with bluebells and species narcissi incorporated. November 9th LAUNCH PARTY. Raise a glass to toast our project. Come and join us for a drink and communal veggie meal which we will be preparing alongside Kentish Town’s vegbox.org.uk. This free of charge event will take place at our very own pop up shop in the heart of Kentish Town which is opening in November for a 6 week trial period in the old Flapjacks Cafe. Join us between 6pm-9pm. RSVP please. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rewilding-camden-launch-dinner-party-tickets-78278181147 November 14th 2019. Come and learn how to make a coppiced wood fence Come and join us on November 14th between 10:30- 2.30 when we will be building a wooden fence to surround our new meadow (using coppiced hazel/willow/cherry from a wood in Croydon). December 2019 There will be a date in December for fruit tree, and native hedgerow shrub planting The future We are already talking to the residents in other housing estates in LB Camden with a view to rewilding a part of their grounds. It’s a project we would like to see scaled up across the whole of LB Camden and included in LB Camden’s new Biodiversity Action Plan which will be launched next year. Rewilding Camden is a project aimed at bringing folks together at the same time as increasing biodiversity. It’s a Transition KT/Camden project in partnership with Camden Council. Debbie, Stephen and Dilip