Cody Dock Medicine Garden

Aim

Help us create a new public medicine garden that brings people closer to nature and celebrates urban biodiversity.

As an East London borough, Newham is one of the most diverse in the UK but it also experiences some of the most challenging health outcomes and inequalities. With 55,000 new homes being built in the immediate surrounding areas, access to green space and preservation of habitat has never been more important (or urgent)!

Who we are:

The work so far at Cody Dock was featured in David Attenborough's 'Saving our Wild Isles' programme as an example of grassroot community action to improve green space, improve habitat and learn about biodiversity in cities. Our citizen science programme data now informs local planning applications and local people are able to treasure their access to green space more in the safe, inclusive and accessible atmosphere at Cody Dock.

"I don't feel so alienated from my surroundings anymore, I see young people in my street and I feel sorry for them, they don't know what they can do to make a difference!" (Paul 2022)

"I used to walk along the street and just see green plants, now I know what their names are, I care about them more." (Yasmin, 2023)

Our vision:

We'd love to create a new, public medicine garden at Cody Dock which will also be an engagement, teaching and volunteering opportunity.

For health: This will help people become active outdoors by helping with the landscaping and then tending the garden for years to come. We will plant native, common, medicinal plants in the garden and use this opportunity to teach about self-care by making teas, creams and tinctures, saving and swapping seeds, propagating and nurturing and connecting with each other, the environment, and learning about and understanding the biodiversity in the garden.

For biodiversity: The area we plan to use is currently choked with bindweed and ivy and we would like our medicine garden to feature a spiral of stones and bricks to create shaded, shielded and terraced planting with dry-loving plants at the top and plants that enjoy more water-logged conditions at the bottom, thus inviting frogs, invertebrates, bees and butterflies into the space. A number of unusual species, such as the very rare eyed longhorn beetle have already been positively identified and recorded as living in close proximity and we'd like to improve habitat to encourage more findings.

For education: People will have a chance to understand different gardening approaches that will be used, such as how the stone spiral creates a small micro climate which is protective for both the plants and the invertebrates that will live in the garden. As a teaching opportunity, this opens wider discussion about planting, shade and microclimates as well as the small measures that individuals can take towards protecting biodiversity in a climate crisis.

Cody Dock provides public green spaces which the general public can enjoy 7 days per week which means the reach for education and enjoyment of the medicine garden far extends the volunteers or team involved in its creation and maintenance. This access includes regular local visiting schools, public open days and events, and also the natural footfall of families and visitors enjoying the space.

What your help will directly contribute to:

The money we raise with this project will directly fund the landscaping of this garden and includes:

Landscaping and preparing the site
Purchase of materials and equipment to dig, level and install the stone spiral
Re-use of as much stone and material on site as possible, however some materials will need to be purchased such as PPE, hand tools, mortar, printed interpretation and so forth
Purchase of seeds, plugs, potting equipment, labels, bottles, jars etc

If we exceed our target, the funds will go towards sustaining our social gardening group activities.

How will this be sustained in the future?

'The Social' is a project at Cody Dock and which supports many of the local residents experiencing loneliness, social isolation or grief and bereavement and we'd love this medicine garden to link with this for workshops in seed saving, making medicines, creams and much more.

Further to this, there is a therapeutic gardener working on site and also a volunteer community gardening team.