All Nature: Nourishing Connections

Discovering urban gardening and community growing projects supported by the Nature Neighbourhoods programme. 

In this episode of All Nature, from the Carbon Copy Podcast, we hear from two community organisations selected as part of the Nature Neighbourhoods programme. In Edinburgh, we meet the founders and participants in Granton Community Gardeners, a charity helping to improve access to fresh food and green space, which attracts people from a huge range of backgrounds, ages and nationalities. In Leeds we discover the Lincoln Greeners group, a weekly urban gardening group run by community arts organisation Mawfa Theatre. We learn how growing together is helping to overcome social isolation and is helping wellbeing for both volunteers and participants. We also speak to Nature Neighbourhoods Programme Manager Rory Crawford, of the National Trust, to understand more about how the initiative came to be, and the aims and aspirations for the three major nature organisations that lead the programme: National Trust, RSPB and WWF-UK. 

Listen to learn: 

• Why nature conservation doesn’t need to be the primary focus for urban gardening and growing projects to be beneficial. 

• How the Nature Neighbourhoods programme is empowering and supporting community organisations to keep doing what they do best at a local level. 

• What keeps participants and volunteers coming back to these inspiring projects every week. 

• How local and grassroots projects can still have a massive impact. 

Show Notes 

• Read more about Granton Community Gardeners on Carbon Copy: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives/granton-community-gardeners  

• Read more about Mafwa Theatre’s Lincoln Greeners group on Carbon Copy: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives/mafwa-theatre-lincoln-greeners  

• Learn about another of the Nature Neighbourhoods programme projects – Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve – in a previous episode of the Carbon Copy Podcast: https://carboncopy.eco/podcasts/root24-glasgow  

• Listen to Bigger Than All Of Us, from the Carbon Copy Podcast series 3, where we learned about the People’s Plan for Nature: https://carboncopy.eco/podcasts/bigger-than-all-of-us  

• Learn about the Nature Neighbourhoods Programme: https://peoplesplanfornature.org/nature-neighbourhoods  

• Learn more about growing food locally, on Carbon Copy: https://carboncopy.eco/community/produce-local-food  

• Discover more stories relating to nature, on Carbon Copy: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives?search_term=&filter-local_area=&filter-action_area%5B%5D=1743  

Mary – Cofounder of Granton Community Gardeners