Unwanted Plant Recycling Programme
Wayward Plants is a collective of designers, artists and urban growers.
About You
Background Information
First Name
Heather
Last Name
Ring
Twitter URL
Facebook URL
The competition is only open to people between 18-34 years-old and resident in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark or the Netherlands. Does this apply to you
Country of residence of entrepreneur
UK
Tell us about your personal background. Why are you passionate about this issue? Making an idea a reality takes innovation, dedication and strong leadership. Do you have the necessary entrepreneurial skills to realize your vision?
I'm a landscape architect and the founder and Creative Director of Wayward Plants, an award-winning practice of designers, artists and urban growers. We've been designed and produced some pretty innovative projects already - including the Union Street Urban Orchard (a pop-up orchard, transforming a derelict site), and the Urban Physic Garden (a pop-up garden of medicinal plants).
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Wayward Plants
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, London
Country where this project is creating social impact
United Kingdom, London
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
Innovation
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
Wayward Plants creates imaginative responses for derelict sites through community garden projects and plant exchanges and adoption events. We have found that thousands of plants are thrown away from flower shows, garden festivals and other events. These spaces could be transformed by these plants, but there are no legacies in place for their reuse.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
We are interested in developing a large-scale recycling program for unwanted plants. Whether redistributing the thousands of plants that are thrown away from major flower shows, festivals and events, salvaging plants in the gardens of housing estates and buildings undergoing demolition or recovering the plants seasonally rotated by council parks and public green spaces, this service would facilitate and support the creation of new community green spaces throughout London. It would create meaningful legacies for both temporary events and historic sites undergoing regeneration.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
We are building a model to establish community-led nurseries for both the storage and propagation of plants in derelict sites and meanwhile spaces. The nurseries will be supported by a resource centre for plants and other materials and will act as platforms for skills workshops and co-designing with communities to re-envision forgotten local spaces.
At the heart of our projects are plant exchanges that bring people together through plants and their stories. In 2010, Wayward Plants created a pop-up shop in Brixton Market to collect living Christmas trees, and organised a community planting of these trees in a local school. We would like to expand this project by partnering with local tree farms to create a sustainable model for reducing holiday waste and creating urban forests. In the same year, Wayward Plants was commissioned by the Architecture Foundation to design the Union Street Urban Orchard for the London Festival of Architecture. The pop-up orchard, built by over a hundred volunteers, lasted one fruit season and at the end of the project, 85 fruit trees and hundreds of wayward plants were redistributed to housing estates in the local area, seeding new orchards and creating a lasting legacy for the festival. Last summer, Wayward Plants designed and produced the Urban Physic Garden, a pop-up garden of medicinal plants, which again distributed - this time - thousands of plants to local community spaces. Wayward Plants has also worked closely with guerrilla gardeners and, to date, salvaged hundreds plants from housing estates undergoing demolition to help beautify London's streets and forgotten spaces.
We wish to build on this work by creating the partnerships and infrastructure to facilitate the large-scale exchange of plants, thus supporting the creation of imaginative growing spaces for London.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
There are many community groups working to green our urban spaces. We have a unique approach and create platforms to support other groups working towards the same goals.
Select the stage that best applies to your business
Operating for 1-5 years
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
What is the social impact you have had to date and how you measure it?
Our projects have involved hundreds of volunteers in community builds, and our gardens have hosted hundreds of community events. We have measured the projects succcess through the tremendous response we've had, and the legacy these projects have created in the local area.
Sustainability
How does your model address financial, social, and environmental sustainability?
We are targeting waste, creating new and inspiring spaces, and offering a community resource and platform for engagement. From a financial standpoint, the nursery would function as a social enterprise - salvaging wayward plants and facilitating exchanges - while propagating new plants in the nursery, to sell to urban growers. We are interested in training young people in running the nursery, urban growing and plant propagation.
Awareness & learning
How do you see social entrepreneurship contributing to the improvement of developing countries?
Plants play an important role throughout the world - for food, medicine, materials and more - and they are always connected to people and stories.
What aspects of your stay in Uganda as part of the competition do you think you will find most challenging and rewarding?
We have had a local focus to our work, but we are also creating models (such as the Urban Orchard and the Urban Physic Garden), which we're being invited to produce internationally. We're interested in learning more about the role of plants in the lives of communities in Uganda.
 | 16 weeks agoHeather Ring updated this Competition Entry. |
| 16 weeks agoHeather Ring submitted this idea. |
