Greener Growth

10/12/2025

Greener Growth's Jo Metcalfe and Pasha Soiis were delighted to meet Marten Lewis, Chairman of the , to show him around Fferm Lodor Ganol, Maenclochog. This twinning project, between this small hill farm and local schools, has received a £2,500 grant to cover initial habitat havens, planting of a heritage orchard and nature trail signage .

As a result of Bluestone Foundation's kind support, we have been able to start the project, and we look forward to welcoming local schoolchildren who will be involved in helping to enhance biodiversity and food production on the farm. They will also be learning about traditional local farming techniques and what support a Welsh family hill farm such as this needs in order to conserve and protect nature whilst continuing to produce high quality food.

Marten was shown where the first 15 bird and bat boxes have been installed and the planned areas for the nature trail and heritage orchard. We would like to send out heartfelt thanks for his time and the Bluestone Foundation's support. We look forward to a fruitful long-term collaboration with such a forward thinking organisation.

Marten will be coming back to plant one of the heritage fruit trees in the early part of 2026 and we look forward to seeing him again then.

04/12/2025

**Greener Growth Radio spot!**

Listen to the director & founder Jo Metcalfe on Suffolk Sound Radio from Wednesday 26th November 2025. (from10 mins in to 1hr 13mins)

A great way to learn all about Greener Growth’s wide ranging work in businesses, schools and communities, what small things you can do to improve nature locally, the Ancient Tree Forum and a visit to Melton’s Riduna Park.

Hear from Jo herself about GG’s ethos, roots and their many accomplishments and future exciting projects and how you can get involved or benefit from their remarkable work!

https://listenagain.suffolksound.com/player/player.php?file=LunchtimeWithKarenCannardWednesday.mp3&t=600

10/09/2025

If we want resilient food systems and thriving ecosystems, it starts beneath our feet: in the soil.

Healthy, nutrient-dense soil is alive...teeming with microbes, fungi, and organic matter that fuel plant growth and carbon capture. But it doesn’t happen by accident. Through permaculture and regenerative horticulture, we can restore balance:

🌾 Diversity is strength: Polyculture planting mimics natural ecosystems, reducing pests and boosting yields.

🌿 Feed the soil, not just the plant: Composting, cover crops, and no-dig methods build fertility and structure.

🌻 Work with nature, not against it: Companion planting, water harvesting, and perennial systems create abundance with less input.

Every garden, farm, and green space can be a sanctuary for biodiversity and a source of nutrient-rich food. The more life we invite into our soil, the more life we support above it.

Let’s grow food that nourishes us and the planet 🌍

06/09/2025

🌿 Want to make a real difference in your community and get your hands gloriously dirty while you're at it?

Greener Growth is calling for volunteers to help maintain and create vibrant green spaces around Bury St Edmunds. No experience needed, just a love for nature and a willingness to learn. 🌼

Whether you're planting fruit trees, sowing wildflower seeds, building insect hotels, or simply watering raised beds, your time will help transform outdoor spaces into havens for wildlife, food growing, and community connection. Travel expenses are covered, and all ages and abilities are warmly welcomed.

💚 You’ll gain practical horticultural skills, meet like-minded people, and become part of a movement that’s restoring biodiversity and beauty, one green space at a time.

Ready to grow something amazing? Learn more and sign up here

05/09/2025

🌱 “To cultivate the land is to cultivate life, not just in the soil, but in ourselves.”

At Greener Growth, we believe horticulture and permaculture are more than techniques, they’re acts of restoration. Every green space we revive, every child we teach to grow food, every compost pile we nurture is a step toward healing our communities and ecosystems.

But this isn’t just poetic...it’s urgent.

📉 According to the Broken Plate 2025 report, healthier foods in the UK are more than twice as expensive per calorie than less healthy options. The most deprived families would need to spend up to 70% of their disposable income to meet government-recommended nutrition standards.

🥦 Meanwhile, 7.3 million adults are experiencing food insecurity, and over 1 million older people are malnourished or at risk. This isn’t just about access, it’s about the quality of what we grow and how we grow it.

🌿 That’s why we teach children and communities not only to grow food, but to understand soil health, composting, and natural fertilisers. Because nutrient-rich soil produces nutrient-rich food and that’s the foundation of public health.

Let’s restore our relationship with the land. Let’s make growing food a right, not a privilege. And let’s ensure that what we grow truly nourishes.

04/09/2025

🌿✨ Ponds aren’t just pretty, they’re powerful ecosystems that support wildlife, clean water, and even human wellbeing.

At Greener Growth, we love showcasing pond plants that do more than look good. The right mix of aquatic greenery can oxygenate the water, filter out impurities, and create safe havens for frogs, dragonflies, birds, and more.

💧 Top UK pond plants for oxygenation & filtration:

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) – free-floating, low-maintenance, great for algae control

Willow Moss (Fontinalis antipyretica) – thrives in cooler water, ideal for shaded ponds

Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus aquatilis) – beautiful buttercup-like flowers and fast-growing oxygenator

Mare’s Tail (Equisetum arvense) – upright and hardy, excellent for filtration and structure

Why it matters:

🌼 Ponds offer sensory-rich learning for children

🦋 They attract pollinators and amphibians, boosting biodiversity

🧘‍♀️ They promote calm, connection, and mental wellbeing for all ages

Whether in a school, garden, or community space, a well-planted pond is a living classroom and sanctuary. Let’s grow more of them together.

03/09/2025

At Greener Growth, our school workshops do just that. We teach children how to grow their own food, explore permaculture principles, and care for the land around them. But the benefits go far beyond gardening:

🍎 Learning to grow food builds confidence, resilience, and real-world skills
👐 Playing in soil supports sensory development and emotional regulation
🌿 Permaculture teaches problem-solving, sustainability, and respect for nature 💚 Outdoor learning boosts wellbeing, especially for neurodivergent and disadvantaged pupils

In a world facing ecological and mental health crises, these workshops are more than enrichment, they’re essential. They reconnect children to the rhythms of nature, empower them to nurture life, and remind them that they, too, can grow.

Let’s give every child the chance to thrive, starting from the ground up.
https://greenergrowth.co.uk/schools/

In school environments, we help children develop their understanding of the natural world.

02/09/2025

🌱 At Greener Growth, we believe that every neglected space holds the potential to heal, nourish, and inspire. From school play areas to prison outdoor spaces, we transform forgotten corners into thriving ecosystems, teaching food growing, boosting biodiversity, and fostering connection through nature.

Our mission is simple but powerful:

🔹 Enhance biodiversity through sustainable landscaping

🔹 Deliver therapeutic food-growing projects in schools, prisons, and communities

🔹 Empower individuals, children, ex-offenders, and vulnerable groups, with life skills rooted in nature

💚 Philanthropic support allows us to:

Build sensory gardens and polytunnels in underfunded schools

Create restorative green spaces in prisons that teach resilience and responsibility

Expand our reach to communities most in need of ecological and emotional renewal

Your donation isn’t just a gift, it’s an investment in transformation. Help us nurture nature and change lives, one garden at a time.

🌿 Learn more or get in touch:

https://greenergrowth.co.uk/

Greener Growth transforms urban courtyards into thriving ecosystems—upcycled bug hotels, native wildflowers & healthy pond habitats boosting biodiversity and well-being.

01/09/2025

🌱✨ What an eye-opening day with the brilliant Peni Ediker, a regenerative farming powerhouse!

Peni led a transformative training session on inoculated composts and biofertilisers, techniques rooted in deep respect for soil microbiology and nature’s own regenerative power. Her passion and practical wisdom showed us how to turn depleted land into a thriving, nutrient-dense ecosystem using nothing but natural amendments and microbial magic.

🌍 With over 33% of the world’s soils already degraded and industrial agriculture stripping away vital nutrients year after year, this work couldn’t be more urgent. Peni’s approach reminded us that the answers aren’t in synthetic inputs, they’re in the soil and the land itself. They can be found in nature. By restoring microbial life, we restore fertility, resilience, and abundance.

🍎 From her thriving 5-acre haven in Carmarthenshire to the hands-on learning she shares with communities, Peni is living proof that regeneration is possible and essential.

Let’s keep building soil, not depleting it. Let’s compost, inoculate, and grow with intention. 💚

https://www.cwmarian.org.uk/team-1/peni-ediker

11/08/2025

🍎🌳 Rooted in Heritage, Growing for the Future 🌳🍎

At Greener Growth, we don’t just plant trees, we plant stories, ecosystems, and opportunities. This season, our sites are blooming with heritage fruit trees and bushes, like the beautiful apple tree pictured here. Why heritage?

🌿 Biodiversity Boosters: Traditional varieties are often hardier, more disease-resistant, and better suited to local soils, supporting resilient ecosystems and diverse wildlife.

🐝 Pollinator Havens: Their blossoms feed bees, butterflies, and hoverflies, while their fruit nourishes birds, mammals, and communities.

🍏 Cultural Legacy: Heritage trees carry the flavours and histories of our regions, connecting children and communities to local traditions and seasonal rhythms.

🌱 Learning Landscapes: These trees become living classrooms, teaching about food growing, ecology, and sustainability in sensory-rich, inclusive ways.

🌍 Climate Resilience: Deep-rooted and long-lived, heritage trees help sequester carbon, manage water, and stabilise soil, making them powerful allies in environmental restoration.

From school gardens to community plots, heritage fruit trees are a cornerstone of our rewilding work. They remind us that regeneration is both practical and poetic.

Let’s keep planting with purpose. 🍐💚

08/08/2025

🌸🌿 Hollyhocks Are Blooming...and So Is Biodiversity 🌿🌸

This year, our sites have been graced with the towering beauty of hollyhocks, standing proud, swaying gently, and quietly transforming the landscape. 💫

But these blooms aren’t just eye-catching, they’re ecological assets:

🐝 Pollinator Magnets: Hollyhocks are a buffet for bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. Their open, nectar-rich flowers support vital pollination cycles and boost local insect populations.

🦔 Wildlife Corridors: Tall-stemmed flowers like hollyhocks create vertical structure in rewilded spaces, offering shelter and movement pathways for small mammals and birds.

🌱 Soil Health Allies: Deep roots help aerate the soil and support microbial life, improving long-term site resilience.

🌼 Seasonal Diversity: Alongside daisies, cornflowers, and yarrow, hollyhocks add to the layered bloom calendar, ensuring food and habitat across the seasons.

At Greener Growth, every flower is chosen with purpose. Hollyhocks remind us that beauty and biodiversity go hand in hand.

Let’s keep planting with intention. 🌍💚

07/08/2025

🌿✨ Pond Restoration = Ecosystem Revival ✨🌿

Did you know that restoring a pond doesn’t just bring back water, it revives an entire web of life?

Take the dragonfly: a shimmering symbol of transformation. 🐉💧 Their life begins underwater as nymphs, where they spend up to 2 years hunting and cleaning the pond floor. These aquatic juveniles are fierce predators, helping control mosquito populations and balancing micro-ecosystems.

Then comes the magic: they crawl up a reed, shed their skin, and emerge as dazzling aerial acrobats. 🪶☀️ Adult dragonflies pollinate plants, feed birds, and signal a healthy, oxygen-rich environment.

When we restore ponds, by clearing silt, planting native reeds, and reintroducing biodiversity, we’re not just creating beauty. We’re rebuilding the cycles that sustain life.

💚 Dragonflies remind us: transformation takes time, but the ripple effects are profound.