GET GROWING! –PUBLIC TO NOMINATE SITES AcROSS ENGLAND
FOR A £120,000 GREEN TRANSFORMATION
Kew Gardens and the Big Lottery launch search for a Grow Wild site in England
with callsfor the public to nominate flagship sites
Late November sees the launch of the second phase of a dynamic £10.5m campaign to bring people and communities together to sow, grow and support UK native wild flowers. Grow Wild inspires people to get together to transform unloved urban sites into wildlife-friendly wild flower patches reconnecting them with the outdoors and with each other.
Kew Gardens and the Big Lottery Fund are looking for people in England to nominate a project aimed at transforming an unloved or neglected site, particularly in urban areas, to receive funding from Grow Wild.The winning site will receive £120,000 to create an inspiring green space using UK native plants. The first Grow Wild site in the UK was announced earlier this month – won by the Waterworks project in Barrhead, Scotland. Nominations for English sites can be made via the Grow Wild website at growwilduk.com. The closing date for nominations is 14 February 2014.
A shortlist of four sites across England will be announced in August 2014. Each site will receive £4,000 to develop their proposal in preparation for a public vote. Following the voting campaign, the winning site will be announced in October 2014. The sites will be ready for planting in spring 2015 and the blooming of the flowers in the summer of 2015 will mark the transformation of the sites.
These special Grow Wild projects are one part of the overall UK campaign that aims to inspire three million people to take direct action for UK native wild flowers and get outside in their local communities. Over the next three years, 250,000 seed-sowing kits and over 750,000 individual packs of wild flower seeds will be distributed through Grow Wild partners
The Scottish flagship project was the first to go ahead in the UK. Sites in Wales and Ireland will follow in 2015 and 2016.
Dharmendra Kanani, England Director of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “The weather is getting colder and the dark nights are drawing in but it’s a great time to start planning how to bring life and colour to a neglected patch of your community in the New Year. Grow Wild will bring together friends, families and neighbours to transform their local areas, and hosting a flagship site promises to be a real source of pride. Grow Wild is a great example of the National Lottery pound making a difference on people’s doorsteps and powering the imagination of local communities. I can’t wait to see some really creative ideas begin to blossom.”
Gay Coley, Director of Public Programmes for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew said: “We’re looking for sites across England that can be transformed using UK native plants to create inspiring natural places for people and wildlife. We saw in Scotland how inventive and committed people can be in developing great plans to transform unloved areas. Grow Wild’s Scottish flagship site at Barrhead – a former sewage works – is a fantastic example of this.
“As well as giving unloved areas a new lease of life in a creative way, we want to encourage people to re-engage with the outdoors, taking the time to learn about nature and our environment as well as reaping the benefits that time spent outdoors with other people offers to both physical and mental health.”
Ends
Notes to editors
Issued by the BIG Partnership on behalf of Grow Wild
For more information please contact:
Roanna Katz 0141 333 9585
Claire O’0141 333 9585
Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888, Out of hours: 07867 500 572, Public Enquiries Line: 08454 102030, Textphone: 08456 021 659
Notes to Editors
Grow Wild
Grow Wild is a dynamic £10.5m campaign to bring people and communities together to sow, grow and support UK native wild flowers. Funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Grow Wild aims to inspire people to get together to transform unloved urban sites, gardens and windowsills into wildlife-friendly wild flower patches.
Social media: Twitter @growwilduk #growwild #biglf and Facebook
The Big Lottery
The Big Lottery, the largest distributor of National Lottery good-cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery. BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and awards grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 The Big Lottery Fund has awarded over £5 billion to communities across the UK.
Full details of the work of the Big Lottery Fund, its programmes and awards are available on the website: .
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is internationally respected for its outstanding living collection of plants and world-class Herbarium as well as its scientific expertise in plant diversity, conservation and sustainable development. Kew Gardens is also a major international visitor attraction. Its landscaped 132 hectares and RBG Kew’s country estate, Wakehurst Place, attract nearly two million visitors every year. Wakehurst Place is home to Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild plant seed bank in the world. RBG Kew and its partners have collected and conserved seed from 10% of the world's wild flowering plant species (c.30, 000 species).