We're reviving the millennium garden as part of Make Hamilton Square. Help us create a community garden, urban farm & breathing space.
by Make CIC in Birkenhead, England, United Kingdom
We've hit our crowdfunding target! Thank you to everyone who's helped us to bring our little corner of Birkenhead green space back to life.
Now we're working towards our stretch goal of £7,000 which will help us to start organising events, classes and courses which will take place in our leafy green community garden.
Located adjacent to Wirral’s Grade I listed Hamilton Square, Make Hamilton is a creative community hub and makerspace which will open later this year with affordable workspace, a café and a meeting space, and – at the heart of it all – a community garden. But, we need your help to bring our garden to life…
At the heart of Make Hamilton is our community garden, and we need your help to bring it back to life, so that people of all ages can reconnect with nature in an urban environment. Formerly the Wirral Council’s Millennium Garden, which was commissioned at the turn of the century, our inherited green space is looking a little forlorn of late, and with your help, we can rejuvenate the space and make it flourish.
This is your community garden, and the activities on offer, and the natural surroundings will reflect that. It takes a community to grow our garden, and we’re asking you to help us cultivate it. We’re talking trees, shrubs, bushes, flowers, plants, beehives and a dedicated allotment space, which will supply food for our on-site café, reducing our food miles, keeping our carbon footprint down and providing seasonal, fresh food that’s as local as it comes.
By planting trees, shrubs, bee-friendly bedding plants and a range of colourful flowers in our little corner of the country, we’re not just doing our bit to help the local flora and fauna, but we’ll be improving the air quality of the world around us.
According to a 2014 report by the University of Leeds, 54% of the world’s population live in towns and cities; a statistic which is set to increase by 70% by the middle of the century. Two thirds of urban areas which will exist by 2030 are yet to be built. As urban development increases, the need for green space in our urban areas must also increase, to support our natural ecosystems.
Spending time in green spaces produces chemical patterns in our brains, which are associated with low levels of stress – just being in a garden is good for our mental wellbeing. So much so, that doctors and medical practitioners have recognised gardening as a viable form of social prescribing (activities that doctors recommend to improve patients’ health), due to the health benefits that it’s linked to.
They’re also incredibly important to maintaining the quality of life in elderly people, due to the associated physical activity and relaxation involved.
And, community gardens have been linked to lower crime rates in areas, whilst empowering residents to feel safer in their surroundings.
For some species of birds, bees and flowers, urban areas are a much more favourable habitat than intensively farmed countryside.
Each little bit of green space that is carved out of our concrete jungles, facilitates the movement of wildlife across cities, preventing the isolation and fragmentation of our natural world.
Make is a social enterprise and CIC which provides space and opportunities for people to be creative. Make Hamilton will be our third location – our other two locations are Make Baltic, in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, and Make North Docks our flagship space in the city’s North Docks.
Our spaces are home to makers, hobbyists, crafters, self-employed workers and sole traders, artists, and artisans from all walks of life. As part of our offering, we provide and facilitate classes, skills, and events for our community.
Make Hamilton is designed with our community in mind. Set just off the beautiful Grade I listed Hamilton Square, our new building will be opening later this year and will house office space, coworking space, a community café and of course – our community garden. We want Make Hamilton to be a thriving hub for Wirral-based makers and creators, contributing towards the local economy in Birkenhead.
Our first Wirral-based space will allow us to work closely with our friends and neighbours on community-driven initiatives, including Wirral Mencap, Glen Affric Brewery, The Spider Project, and Bloom, to name a few…
Kirsten and Liam are Make’s founding directors, and both have close ties to the Wirral, having grown up in the area and studied in the region. Kirsten has a Wirral Metropolitan Art Foundation Diploma, and Liam attended Birkenhead Sixth Form College, following which he went on to work at LFC as a social worker.
Amy is Make’s Marketing and Communications Assistant and is project managing the Make Hamilton Grow crowdfunding campaign. Kirsten, Liam and Amy are supported day-to-day in Make by Niamh and Ste who facilitate events, classes and workshops across the Make locations.
By supporting us, you’ll not only help yourself and others to pick up a new life skill, you’ll be helping us to preserve our natural habitat. Your support will help us to buy trees, shrubs, plants and flowers and it will go towards myriad green initiatives in our local community.
Not feeling very green-fingered? We’ve got you covered, as we’re planning to have a whole host of classes and courses in our garden. Think: composting classes; fermentation classes; we’ll teach you how to forage for your own food; basic gardening skills; and everything in between, from beekeeping, to building your own bird boxes and bug hotels…
Our rewards are all designed to make our space as unique as the community that will use it. That’s why we’re asking for your help to populate our little patch of green space and make it your own. Take a look at our rewards to find a full list of everything on offer; for now, here’s a snapshot of some of the perks of supporting Make Hamilton Grow…
Join one of our classes in food fermentation where you can learn a new life skill. You can also build your own birdbox and continue your gardening journey at home.
Buy a tree or shrub to help us beautify our garden. Our trees can be bought anonymously, or can be planted with a name, dedication or memorial, and will be one of the main features of our garden.
We’re building beehives on our roof and we’ll be making our own Hamilton Honey – pots of which will be available to buy as a reward. There will also be plenty of bee-friendly plants and seed packets available as rewards too.
Choose our ‘Sponsor a square metre of space’ reward, and you’ll be the proud sponsor of a metre squared patch of our garden. You’ll even get a precise location of your square metre of space, thanks to the What3words app.
Every garden needs a shed, want to buy us one? Head over to our rewards section where you can find our shed options; you’ll also be able to purchase picnic tables, and even a greenhouse.
We’ve got unique Make prints and stickers from local artist, Tim Devas – there’s also some of his illumoonators available, too.
Illumoonator Tim Devas Mural at Make North Docks
This project offers rewards in return for your donation. Please select a reward below.