Two of us from TTT joined the Wildlife Gardening Forum on 28 November – a hundred people face to face from many sectors and all sizes of organisation: government departments, researchers, urban farmers, scientists, community enterprises, architects, ‘green infrastructure’ experts…and individual gardeners.

The programme (see it here.) was an excellent fit with local steps to a sustainable Tooting – at the very practical level of bringing more of nature into all our lives, and appreciating nature’s relationship with our wellbeing, as well as responding to global challenges like the growth of cities and climate change.

For interest: do you know…
That over 60% of the area of the City of London is roofed – a third of which is suitable now to become ‘green roofs’ growing native plants, cooling the environment, and looking beautiful?

The Forum aims to share practice, knowledge, and science, not hot air – and that reminds me, the meeting was held in a retrofitted tram shed which has been developed to the ‘passive house’ standard: super-insulated, airtight…and with no supplementary heating at all. Great to have the location, and the topic, all joined up!

It left me with positive examples of things we can do together locally. In particular it was great timing in relation to the current community consultation on plans for Springfield Park, and the opportunity to make sustainability and biodiversity the foundations for all the activities of the new Park.
We’ll follow up with more about that – for now, see www.springfieldregeneration.co.uk