Help us create a wildlife garden
Help us transform the concrete concourse surrounding the Canopi building into a lush wildlife-friendly garden. Wilder are trying to reduce pollution and increase biodiversity in a highly polluted and ultra-urban area, as well as providing a beautiful space for the local community.
With assistance from volunteers at Canopi and with funding from Local Trust, Canopi, Groundwork, Trust for London, Veolia and Buglife, we have already de-paved three sections of the concourse. We prepared the ground using the hügelkultur method, before planting a combination of perennial plants including sweet woodruff, ferns, blackthorn, bellflowers and St John’s wort, to name just a few. But we still have work to do…
We are about to start work on the second stage of this project, creating a forest garden and a permaculture area to the rear of the building. We will be running workshops and planting days to involve Canopi residents and the wider community. We need to depave the area, buy plants and materials for the permaculture project, and we'd like to incorporate more plants into the new woodland garden, to make it feel more abundant and biodiverse.
With £8000 we can run the project and complete the planting successfully. Please help us by donating to the Canopi garden, and create a lasting green legacy in the area.
Make a donation.
With your donation, Wilder can complete the Canopi garden
If you donate over £500 we will thank you on our Canopi page, and send you regular updates on the project.
Why are we doing this?
Planting is crucial for our lungs, cleaning the air and boosting immunity. Up to 1,700 people a year go to hospital in London because of bad air. Small undeveloped lungs are particularly vulnerable to pollution – it can cause asthma in children, and significantly worsen existing conditions. It also increases the likelihood of lung cancer.
Research demonstrates that if kids do not have some experience of nature immersion by the age of 7, it is hard to engage them in later life. Wilder believe that we need to come together to tackle the ecological crisis. So we would like local children to be involved in the project: we will run a bug hotel design completion with nearby schools.
Nature in the city is in chronic decline. Wilder is trying to increase biodiversity in our area by planting pollinator-friendly plants that provide nurture for insects. Replacing paving stones with plants is a practical way of avoiding the threat of flooding that is very real in Southwark. And plants have a significant cooling effect, helping to combat the kind of high summer temperatures we endured last year.
‘If you grow together, you grow together. That’s what communities do.’
— Ron Finley