Philpot's Farm
As part of our three year partnership with the London Borough of Hillingdon, we have worked together strategically to improve habitats and ecosystems throughout the borough, by creating new areas of tree and woodland cover. Philpot's Farm Open Space was identified as having a canopy cover at 10-20%, below the 21% London average.
We planted 6,200 whips for woodland creation and 18 standard trees, and implemented 600m2 of fenced off areas for natural regeneration. This area was a prime spot for natural regeneration, with existing areas of woody scrub which we have fenced off to give them the chance to expand, providing benefits for wildlife. We have been maintaining the trees since they were planted in the winter. In total we engaged 277 people at Philpot’s Farm Open Space, through an open community planting day, and planting workshops with a Refugee Centre, St Matthew's CofE Primary School and local SEN school The Pride Academy.
We also held five corporate volunteering planting days, and three planting days with the Ministry of Justice Community Payback scheme. Community and corporate volunteers told us what changed for them at these events. 62% of volunteers planted a tree for the first time, and 90% of volunteers said they had learnt something or developed new skills about planting and looking after urban trees (from samples of 90 and 49 volunteers respectively).
We worked with the Sensory Trust at the school workshops and the community planting day as part of the Language of Nature project. Together we tested out resources to make our events more accessible, communicating about our project using Makaton and Widgit Symbols and emphasising the multi-sensory experience of planting trees.
0m2
of woodland has been created by us at Philpot’s Farm—that’s equivalent to 17 double tennis courts!