Belfast's Wildflower Alley was transformed from a dumping ground to a communal zone of biodiversity
We love this story. The film above is from the RSPB, and the piece below from RTE:
Bríd Ruddy is behind the award-winning 'Wildflower Alley'; a green space and community garden in The Holyland area of inner-south Belfast.
She said: "We started in 2015. We had this very grim and grotty alley behind our houses. Nobody used it. It was full of dumped furniture. It was horrible. We had three security gates put in that stopped burglaries, anti-social behaviour, drug misuse and dealing, a lot of problems that we had out in the alleys behind our homes.
The neglected city alleyway has been transformed into a vibrant community space
"Once we got the security gates, we looked around and thought this is a good, reclaimed urban space in the midst of a very densely-populated area. What could we do with it? And we came up with the idea of a community garden in the alley.
"We shifted tonnes and tonnes of rubbish. And we just brought out plants from our own houses. We painted our back doors a nice bright colour. And suddenly the alley began to develop.
"Then we did some research and we noted Chicago Green Alleys in Chicago which were not just for greenery, but also for urban drainage. So, we now have a Sustainable Urban Drainage Surface (SuDS). This helps to prevent flooding. So, we have a green alley. It's not just a wildflower alley, it's a green alley.
"It is so important for people's mental health and their physical health. And you can see once people are in this green space, the tension and worries fade away.
"This has really transformed our area into a natural habitat. Small projects like this, we've shown, can make a massive difference".
Wildflower Alley co-founder Pam Warhurst tends to flowers planted by the community. Image: Elaine Hill. With thanks to Positive News
More from Positive News:
Community groups across the UK are taking patches of unloved land and filling them with fruit, vegetables and flowers. As roughly one in five people in the UK live in areas that lack access to green space, any plot, no matter how small, can have an impact. A recent Lancaster University study found that Britain could significantly boost its fruit and vegetable production by cultivating scraps of unused land.
Creating a community garden might sound idyllic but wrangling local authorities and landowners can prove no walk in the park. Ruddy drew on her experience in community development to bring the alley’s official owners – the department for infrastructure – on board. It still took four years of lobbying before gates were installed.
Gates in place, Ruddy was struck by the amount of space. Inspired by childhood adventures in alleys, she spoke to local authorities about a garden. They didn’t share her vision. Undeterred, the Wildflower Alley residents started small.
“We painted our back doors bright colours, [each] bought a plant, brought out decorations from the house, old things we didn’t want or need,” Ruddy says. From there, wildflower seeds donated by Grow Wild, the national outreach programme of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, and compost from Queen’s University, allowed the alley to blossom.
Lack of local authority support sees many community groups take matters into their own hands. Incredible Edible, a network of more than 150 UK community gardens, is calling for a ‘right to grow’ law. In May 2022 its members drew up plans to oblige local authorities to keep a register of public land suitable for vegetable and fruit growing, which local groups could apply to access. The campaign has cross-party support from MPs, and there are calls for the government to incorporate it into forthcoming levelling up legislation.