Renewing Blooms, Renewing Design: A Garden That Speaks Circularity

Green Growth is proud to feature garden designer David Negus, a visionary who blends creativity, sustainability, and storytelling through green spaces. His latest achievement—the European Commission’s “Renewed Blooms” garden at Bord Bia Bloom 2025—demonstrates how thoughtful design can illuminate circular economy principles in a living, breathing display.

1. A Celebration of Reuse Commons

The garden, created in collaboration with the Rediscovery Centre, centres around repurposed materials. David uses reclaimed timber, salvaged containers, and recycled aggregates to craft sturdy raised beds, sculptural seating, and modular planting features. The result? A beautiful showcase of how waste becomes opportunity in sustainable design.

2. Planting with Purpose

Selecting plant species was a strategic exercise in both aesthetics and ecology. The garden pulses with pollinator-friendly blooms and hardy perennials, designed to establish self-sustaining loops rather than requiring constant intervention. Their textures, forms, and seasonal rhythms embody the message of renewal—thriving long past the festival’s end.

3. Transformative Interaction

David’s design invites visitor engagement. The layout encourages people to wander through intimate planting scenes, pause on curved benches, and reconnect with the rhythms of nature. It’s more than a spectacle—it’s a microcosm of how we might walk through the future of greener, circular landscapes.

4. Accolades for a Vision Realised

“Renewed Blooms” stood out at Bord Bia Bloom, earning three awards for its innovative approach and compelling message . As the European Commission’s living platform for circular awareness, the garden speaks far beyond its physical footprint.

Why It Matters for Greener Growth

For those passionate about garden design and sustainability, David Negus’s work offers a masterclass in translating big ideas into tangible, beautiful spaces. Key takeaways include:

Circular strategy is design strategy.
Community awareness emerges when design is transparent and participatory.
Aesthetic integrity need not be sacrificed for sustainability.
Award-winning work flows from strong storytelling and material integrity.

🌿 Embody Circular Design in Your Garden

Inspired by David’s approach? Here’s how to start:

Step	Action	Why It Matters
1	Audit & Collect	Gather scrap wood, broken pots, old bricks — future design assets.
2	Design Modular Features	Use standardised repurposed elements for future scalability.
3	Plant for Permanence	Choose pollinator species, biodiversity boosters, low-input plants.
4	Encourage Use	Add places to sit, walk, engage — gardens thrive when people do.

Join the Movement

David’s “Renewed Blooms” garden reminds us that gardens can be engines of positive change—educational hubs, creative salons, ecological havens. At Greener Growth, we champion projects that deliver environmental ambition and aesthetic excellence. Consider collaborating with David Negus or our design team to bring this powerful vision into your own outdoor space.

Let’s reimagine gardening together—beautifully, sustainably, circularly.

Have your own green design challenge or question? Reach out—we’d love to grow alongside you.

About David Negus
Garden designer David Negus creates landscapes that combine visual flair with ecological purpose. Based in the UK, he works extensively with Greener Growth to realise projects that balance artistry, sustainability, and environmental stewardship. Discover more about David on our team page or explore his portfolio here.

Further Reading & Inspiration

Learn more about “Renewed Blooms” in partnership with the Rediscovery Centre (Rediscovery Centre).
Explore circular garden ideas and award-winning work at Bord Bia Bloom.

At Greener Growth, every garden is a chance to foster regeneration—one bloom, one design, one community at a time.

Reviving Riduna Park: A Living Landscape by Greener Growth

Watch the full video tour below to see how Greener Growth reimagined a standard office courtyard as a living landscape that benefits both people and wildlife.

From Paved to Pollinator-Friendly

Greener Growth began by reclaiming mere scraps of workshop timber to build charming bug hotels. Strategically placed around the garden, these insect condos provide nesting nooks for solitary bees, ladybirds and lacewings—boosting pollination and adding an artisanal focal point to the space.

A Tapestry of Native Wildflowers

Rather than ornamental bedding plants, the team seeded low-maintenance native wildflowers around raised octagonal beds. Month after month, from spring’s first blooms to late-season asters, the borders hum with activity—attracting bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies while requiring minimal upkeep.

Water at the Heart of the Garden

No true ecosystem is complete without water. Riduna Park’s inviting pond sustains pondweed, shrimps and other invertebrates, creating a micro-wetland that naturally filters water and entices amphibians. It’s a dynamic balance: the very “weeds” you might pull are the keys to healthy oxygen levels and biological diversity.

Human Well-Being Through Green Design

Beyond ecology, Riduna Park proves how green spaces uplift office culture. Colleagues now choose to eat lunch among flowers and birdsong, reducing stress and sparking creativity. This living laboratory illustrates that sustainable landscaping isn’t just an environmental choice—it’s an investment in people.

Evergreen Lessons for Your Site

Start Small: Even a few upcycled bug hotels or nesting boxes can dramatically increase insect life.
Go Native: Local wildflower mixes deliver year-round color and ecological function without intensive care.
Embrace “Weeds”: Marginal pond plants provide essential habitat and water quality benefits.
Design for People: Place seating near garden “hotspots” to maximize well-being and engagement.
Think Long-Term: Self-seeding plants and maturing trees create an ever-evolving ecosystem.

Ready to transform your own outdoor space?
Contact Greener Growth today to explore sustainable landscaping services that blend beauty, biodiversity and well-being.

Transforming School Grounds with Sustainable Grounds Care

At Greener Growth, we believe every school and business deserves vibrant, eco-friendly landscaping that educates and inspires. Our greener maintenance contracts go beyond routine upkeep, integrating organic, sustainable grounds care with hands‑on green education programmes. Discover how our glyphosate‑free approach is reducing carbon footprints, boosting biodiversity in schools, and creating lasting outdoor learning spaces that engage children and communities alike.

Eco‑Friendly Landscaping for Schools and Commercial Clients

Our school grounds maintenance services set the standard for eco-friendly landscaping. By choosing organic methods, we help institutions of all sizes, from primary schools to corporate business parks, maintain lush, healthy green spaces without harmful sprays or chemicals.

Organic, Sustainable Grounds Care

With a commitment to sustainable grounds care, Greener Growth uses only organic fertilisers and natural pest‑management techniques. Our teams create composting systems on site, compost bays, leaf‑mould cages, and wormeries, that recycle green waste into nutrient‑rich compost, closing the loop on garden waste and supporting healthy plant growth. In addition, this enables us to keep all green waste on site which has a huge impact on organisational carbon neutrality.

Enhancing Biodiversity in Schools

Our programmes focus on biodiversity in schools, planting native shrubs, willow classrooms, heritage orchards and wildflower margins to create wildlife corridors and pollinator habitats. These living classrooms introduce students to conservation and help institutions meet biodiversity net‑gain targets.

Glyphosate‑Free Maintenance Practices

We’re proud to offer truly glyphosate-free grounds maintenance. By eliminating so-called “safe” chemical sprays, we safeguard children, staff, waterways and local wildlife, while still delivering pristine playing fields, playgrounds, and ornamental sensory gardens with therapeutic and educational impact.

Work on a commercial maintenance contract

Outdoor Learning and Green Education Programmes

Our Greener Maintenance Contracts double as outdoor learning opportunities. We partner with teachers to develop seasonal workshops—seed sowing, compost‑making, wildlife monitoring—that bring biology, ecology, and sustainability into the curriculum. Children learn by doing, and schools tick all their sustainability targets and green education programme boxes.

Growth in Demand: Why More Schools Are Choosing Greener Maintenance

Demand for our Greener Maintenance Contracts is surging among schools, particularly academies, trusts, and commercial landlords alike. Clients appreciate our ability to help secure additional funding, help increase green infrastructure, and deliver on sustainability goals—all while creating engaging green spaces.

Ready to grow greener together?
Contact Greener Growth today to discuss a custom school grounds maintenance plan or commercial eco‑landscaping package. Let’s reduce your carbon footprint, boost biodiversity, and inspire students through hands‑on outdoor learning.
👉 Email: [email protected]
🔗 Share this post and help spread the word about sustainable grounds care!

Greener Growth now SafeContractor Approved

We are very pleased to announce that Greener Growth CIC has been awarded SafeContractor accreditation from Alcumus for achieving excellence in health and safety in the workplace. Alcumus SafeContractor is a leading third party accreditation scheme which recognises extremely rigorous standards in health and safety management amongst contractors. It is used by thousands of organisations in the UK including SMEs and FTSE 100 companies.

Our Operations Manager Jannine Parry has spearheaded the work to achieve this accreditation which has taken our health and safety policies to the next level. This award demonstrates to our clients our commitment to ethical, safe working conditions and will greatly expand the sites and clients we can work with. Most of all the award shows our team, that we are committed to providing them with a safe and secure working environment.

Well done Jannine and all the team!

Working to make housing developments places where wildlife can live too

(Photo above: Craig Lee and Paul Hebditch from Greener Growth check on a wild flower area at Riduna Park business park in Melton Picture: Ross Bentley)

Ross Bentley | East Anglian Times

An event held in Suffolk this week sought to encourage house builders and construction firms to factor nature into their plans from the start.

Joannah Metcalfe of Greener Growth presenting at Riduna Park Picture: Ross Bentley

For a long time conservationists have pointed to urban sprawl as a key reason why wildlife is in decline.

Often, new housing is built on the edges of towns and villages, destroying valuable fringe habitats, hedges, scrub and copses - replacing it with concrete and tarmac.

And while developers are obliged to conduct ecological surveys and transfer endangered species to other sites, few new developments make any concessions to the insects, birds and reptiles whose space they have taken in terms of leaving green areas or nest boxes for them to use.

But there are signs that politicians and businesses are finally looking at ways to make housing developments more nature friendly.

Wild flower area at Riduna Park in Melton Picture: Ross Bentley

Biodiversity net gain

In March, Chancellor Philip Hammond used his Spring Statement to confirm that government will use the forthcoming Environment Bill to mandate 'biodiversity net gain' - meaning the delivery of much-needed infrastructure and housing should not be at the expense of vital biodiversity.

Expect to hear more of the term 'biodiversity net gain' in future months - a phrase that requires developers to ensure habitats for wildlife are enhanced and left in a measurably better state than they were pre-development.

According the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), going forward developers will be required to assess the type of habitat and its condition before submitting plans, and then demonstrate how they are improving biodiversity, such as through the creation of green corridors, planting more trees, or forming local nature spaces.

If this approach is applied with conviction in Suffolk, it could make a big difference.

Wild flower area at Riduna Park in Melton Picture: Ross Bentley

More than 62,000 new homes will be needed in the county in the next 20 years to keep up with demand, according to The State of Suffolk 2019 report produced by public health body Healthy Suffolk earlier this year. And it's not just the houses and apartments that will have an impact - green space will also go under the digger to build the accompanying roads, shops, schools and community buildings required to service this substantial heft of bricks and mortar.

Active conservation

Someone who wants to soften the impact of all this built environment is Joannah Metcalfe, founder of Greener Growth, a community interest company, based near Bury St Edmunds, which uses conservation and gardening projects to teach school children about nature and give prison inmates a sense of purpose and wellbeing.

Latterly, Ms Metcalfe and her team have turned their attention to developers and builders who they want to work with to make housing projects as nature friendly as they can be.

With this in mind, the Greener Growth team hosted an information event at Riduna Park business park in Melton near Woodbridge earlier this week and invited landowners and representatives from councils and construction businesses along to hear their rallying cry and to demonstrate how they can work together to improve conditions for wildlife.

Joannah Metcalfe presenting at Riduna Park Picture: Deborah Watson

"Traditionally wildlife conservation and the construction industries have been typically juxtaposed and disconnected," says Ms Metcalfe.

"If certain forms of wildlife are found on a site, such as great crested newts or species of bat, building can be delayed or halted."

Proposition

Verbena cluster at Riduna Park

Greener Growth's proposition has a number of strands. One service they are offering is managing land that developers have purchased for housing but that may then sit untouched for years before the heavy plant moves in.

Often, during this time nature takes over but Greener Growth offers to look after this process, so that natural areas have already been designated before building starts.

This, they say, will smooth the planning process.

Ms Metcalfe said much of this cost can be paid for with savings elsewhere. Earth and waste material removal costs - which are not insignificant at £230 per skip - can be much reduced by recycling, using off-cuts of wood and pallets to make bird boxes and bug hotels, and keeping earth on site for nature zones.

Greener Growth also promotes the planting of wild flowers across developments, as seen at Riduna Park where pollinator-friendly verbena and ox-eye daises have been retro-planted in place of architectural grasses "that do virtually nothing for wildlife" said Ms Metcalfe.

One building firm that has already linked up with Greener Growth is Mixbrow Construction from Needham Market. Operations director Stuart Leech said he hoped to " set the company apart" from other building firms by offering a greener proposition when it comes to tendering for contracts.

Stuart Leech of Mixbrow Construction at Riduna Park Picture: Ross Bentley

But, he added: "To really have an impact, we need to get in early with the architects and designers, [who design developments] as getting anything changed after planning permission has been given can be an issue."

https://www.eadt.co.uk/business/biodiversity-net-gains-in-suffolk-housing-plans-1-6170634

Riduna Park Press Release

Above: Riduna Park director Katie Emmerson and founder/director of Green Growth Jo Metcalfe

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 18 July 2019

CONSTRUCTION WORLD ENCOURAGED TO PLAY THEIR PART IN COUNTY-WIDE CONSERVATION

Business leaders in construction and land development have been urged to embrace their important role in conservation across Suffolk.

Landowners, council representatives and housing businesses were among those who attended a special event at Riduna Park, in Melton, to hear a rallying call from CIC Greener Growth.

The event saw Greener Growth’s founder, Joannah Metcalfe, emphasise the need for more knowledge, responsibility and active conservation practices among those developing homes and building projects across Suffolk.

She highlighted the challenges faced by the natural environment throughout the county, and urged company owners to make it part of their project delivery to consider the impact of their work on wildlife in particular.

Greener Growth, which focuses on taking neglected areas and making them both food producing and biodiversity-enhancing, is already working with the owners of Riduna Park, to ensure that birds, bats, insects and woodland areas are preserved through a number of considerate wildlife activities.

Welcoming nearly 30 business representatives to the event, staged in East Suffolk Council’s headquarters, Jo said: “It was our great pleasure to hold this event at Riduna Park in recognition of their commitment to this innovative new type of partnership.

“Traditionally wildlife conservation and the construction industries have been typically juxtaposed and disconnected. If certain forms of wildlife are found on a site, building can be delayed or halted.

“Collaborating with Greener Growth with a series of different initiatives, these industries can turbo-charge their green credentials by honouring the wider environment and work with nature rather than against it. We would like to thank East Suffolk Council for their kind support and enthusiasm for our objectives.”

Those attending the event were encouraged to witness a number of the activities already in place at Riduna Park, and took a tour of the business park to see the stationed bird boxes, insect hotels and bat hides which have been put in place in recent weeks.

Katie Emerson, Project Manager for Riduna Holdings, which owns the park, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Greener Growth, not only because of their community interest ethos, but because of the fascinating education and understanding which the team are able to bring to our business residents around what they can do to help Suffolk’s conservation situation.

“Already, we’ve had a number of companies on the site say that they want to sponsor boxes or other water and wildlife based features which will be springing up across Riduna Park this summer.

“It’s a great collaboration for us, and one which we wanted more construction and development companies to be able to benefit from in a similar way.”

Among those businesses and organisations attending the event were Brightwell Ventures, Suffolk Community Foundation, Mixbrow Construction, Savills, Rose Construction, Norse, Weston Homes, Harrowden Turf, Suffolk County Council, East Suffolk Council and Andrew Thompson & Associates, Eco Frenzy, Jordan+Bateman Architects

For more information about the Park and its offering, contact Katie on

01394 799 089 or email [email protected] or [email protected].

ENDS.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Press Contact:

For more details and further interview opportunity, please contact Deborah Watson via email on [email protected] or call 07974 359001.

Images:

Images were taken by Riduna Holdings and are the property of Riduna Holdings and are made available for media use by the company for single use.

About Riduna:

Already home to the headquarters of East Suffolk District Council, several innovative independent businesses, and the artisan coffee house Honey + Harvey, the site has attracted huge interest from companies keen to base themselves in a modern development which has easy access points by rail and road.

Phase Two, which consists of nine offices varying in size from 1,250 sq ft to 7,500 sq ft two-storey options, is now ready for occupation.

The new stage of the business park has been completed with wooden flooring, intuitive heating and air conditioning, shower rooms, and also includes plenty of car parking for staff and visitors.

Data Regulations:
You are receiving this press release as your contact details and publication are featured on freely available media database software, utilised by this agency. Should you not wish to receive communications from us, please contact Deborah Watson on the contact details above.

Background information: Please see the UK State of Nature report which can be found here State of Nature 2016

Business park’s new partnership to boost biodiversity

suffolkbusiness.co.uk | (Above) Katie Emerson, left and Joannah Metcalfe at Riduna Park (photo: Warren Page)

One of Suffolk’s newest business parks is on its way to becoming a welcome natural haven for bats, birds and wildlife, thanks to a special collaboration with a conservation team.

The owners of Riduna Park, at Melton, have announced their unique partnership with Greener Growth, a CIC started five years ago in East Anglia to help transform neglected spaces, improve biodiversity, and bring therapeutic horticulture to individuals in particular need.

A team from the organisation will now be working on site at Riduna Park to create areas of wildflowers and herbs, improve the ecosystem for wildlife, form ideal open spaces for office workers on site to use at lunchtimes, develop plans for raised flowerbeds and a salad vegetable garden, and create a number of hedgehog, bat and bird boxes.

The project will be overseen by Greener Growth’s CEO, Joannah Metcalfe.

She said: “I’m so excited to be starting this relationship with the owners of Riduna Park, because they’re so keen to ensure that their space is an area which protects and encourages wildlife and a stronger ecosystem.

“Our work at Greener Growth started out with the desire to use therapeutic horticulture to teach people in disadvantaged groups about growing food and conserving nature.

“We knew very quickly it was having a profound effect, and so to allow us to continue to fund that work – particularly with schools and similar community groups – we look to partner with corporate organisations, like Riduna, who see benefit in having us do a commercial activity which helps meet their needs and generates a more positive use of their space.”

The Greener Growth team will include highly experienced conservation and horticultural experts, as well as those specialising in construction for outdoor spaces.

Riduna Park’s Project Manager, Katie Emerson, said: “It has always been important to us in the creation of the business park development, that we would be able to find ways of preserving the nature that exists on this site, and that we could continue to provide the kind of spaces where residents in our offices would want to spend a quiet few moments, or take their lunch break.

“Teaming up with Greener Growth is a great fit. We like that as a CIC they have a wider objective around educating people in specific groups and schools through horticultural therapy, but also that they are very understanding of our desire to have a collaboration which can evolve as the site changes.

“Initially, much of the work will revolve around maintenance and preparation, but in the coming months we’re really looking forward to developing some more exciting ideas like a salad vegetable garden – as well as encouraging our office residents to get involved in making or sponsoring their own bird or bat boxes.”

With the first two phases of Riduna Park fully occupied, phase three will now be under way this Spring.

For more information about the Park and its offering, contact Katie on 01394 799 089 or email [email protected] or [email protected]

Fedging At The Crown, Hartest

Another rainy morning...This time doing some fine fedging at The Crown, with Fiesty Fi fielding the practiced tutelage of Willow Geoff. As you can see, Sam is hole-poker and Craig is on hand with the willow.