Jo Metcalfe on Suffolk Sound: National Tree Week and Springfield Junior School

Our founder Jo Metcalfe joined Karen Cannard on Suffolk Sound during National Tree Week to discuss our work across Suffolk, from corporate biodiversity projects to an exciting school transformation in Ipswich.

Corporate Services: Riduna Park

Karen and Jo visited our flagship site at Riduna Park, Melton, where we manage the grounds around East Suffolk Council offices. The tour showcased our pond tables—raised ponds designed for both wildlife and staff wellbeing. Staff use the nature-rich space during breaks, with over 20 local residents now regularly walking the site to enjoy the wildlife.

Protecting Veteran Trees

During National Tree Week, Jo highlighted the importance of protecting ancient trees. An oak can support 200 different species of wildlife and takes around 150 years to die—providing crucial habitat throughout its decline. We now work with specialist ecologists to advise corporate clients on tree management, following the Ancient Tree Forum's approach to preserving these national treasures.

Springfield Junior School: Creating a Green Oasis

We're transforming Springfield Junior School's playground in Ipswich. With 341 children—many without gardens—the school currently has a tarmac expanse that needs greening.

The £30,000 project will feature:

Raised beds with bench seating
Vertical planting on walls and fences
Pergolas for shade and shelter
Tree pits maintained by students

We've secured £13,000 so far from the school, Evolution Academy grants, and Suffolk Masonic Lodges. We're calling on Ipswich businesses to help us reach our target within six months through sponsorship or volunteer events.

Schools Work

We deliver horticultural therapy across Suffolk schools, with 27 currently on our waiting list. Our programmes teach children about food growing, wildlife conservation, and native species—many have never seen a frog or toad. For students who struggle with classroom learning, these outdoor spaces can be transformative.

Get Involved

Support Springfield Junior School: Contact us about sponsorship or volunteering opportunities.

Corporate Services: Every corporate contract helps fund our work with SEND schools and vulnerable communities. We support biodiversity net gain, staff wellbeing initiatives, and CSR objectives.

Listen to the full interview on Suffolk Sound. Contact us to discuss your project.

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.

Our new brochure

Our new brochure!

Check out our new brochure detailing what we do, when how and where...

Greener Growth Brochure

"Anyone for a carrot?"

"Anyone for a carrot?’

Re-greening our prisons from the inside out

insidetime.org | Joannah Metcalfe

Greener Growth is delighted to report that recognition of the impact of spending time outside with our unique therapeutic packages seems to be growing as fast as our gardens this year! So far with the prison estates in the East Anglian & Kent regions and progressing with registered interest at HMP Thameside.

We are being asked to attend more and more meetings with both our normal points of contact – therapeutic units (PIPES and TCs) – but also with Prison Governors themselves. Those with a really progressive approach, such as Sonia Walsh at HMP Wayland near Thetford in Norfolk, and previously Will Styles and now Acting Governor Ruth Stevens at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshirehave been so impressed with the various impacts of the PIPE Gardens, they want us to help “Re-Green” the rest of the prison’s interiors. It has been a pleasure to discuss such real innovations.

We are now happy to report we have 2 projects growing at HMP Wayland with another 3 planned, 2 at HMP Whitemoor with another 3 in development, and 1 at HMP Swaleside with another about to start.

It is so obviously an effective, relatively low cost, high yielding way to change the “abandon hope all ye who enter” atmosphere of some of our prisons, it is not difficult to see why. Making use of the resources already present in our prison estates, i.e. the space, recycling or re-using materials and any resources already on each site, and helping people to help themselves by planting and growing food whilst creating conservation initiatives. Nature does the rest.

We believe that transforming the look and feel of the gardens whilst growing food, creates a more varied range of results than any other initiatives, as there is such a myriad of different benefits from working outside. There are so many reports coming out now regarding the therapeutic benefits of being outside, connecting with the natural rhythms of Nature, the seasons, that the earth itself improves mental health and general wellbeing. Mentally and emotionally grounding, literally, growing food and encouraging Nature back into urban, concrete environments, encourages us to observe that which is “outside of ourselves”, and within these new points of interest comes a calmer capacity to re-engage with the simpler pleasures of life. Growing fresh, seasonal produce, combined with all the benefits of learning how to cook nutritionally-rich meals, how to share again, all these are such valuable life skills. To see more people within the whole prison community getting outside and working, laughing and growing together is such a pleasure. These are exciting times.

It is not difficult to understand how this re-engagement or learning of new skills helps improve mental health issues, general fitness and wellbeing, helps increase employability and hope for the future. Everyone needs something to look forward to. It is vital for us as a society that people leave their sentence in a better state than when they went in – or more unnecessary suffering (and cost) ensues. So much criminality has its roots in mental health issues, if prisons are only about punishment and not about new beginnings, it is a huge failure and missed opportunity for all of us.

For our team, the constant news on what is wrong with the current prison system just emphasises how many opportunities there are to generate innovative new approaches to get things right. Our 8 years work with residents has such a profound impact, we are passionately dedicated to the need to cover more land with “Greener Growth”, and impact more people within our prison communities, both staff, residents and the wider environment alike.

We have finally managed to access some photographs of one of our smaller prison projects to help demonstrate the visual impact of our work. As you take in the transformation of our “Before and After” shots, imagine how it feels to start working outside in a garden like this when you have been inside for most of your adult life, like many of the men we work with in HMP Whitemoor. Feeling the sun on your face, the grass under your feet, to see birds and butterflies close up again. To pop a fresh pea in your mouth, a strawberry, to pull up carrots you sowed from seed. To watch pond skaters on the surface of the wildlife pond, see and hear a dragonfly humming past.

Currently news around prison is all about creating more prison spaces, about locking more people up. With a high re-offending rate, and so many prisons with low staffing levels and men and women in their cells, unable to attend courses and classes that they need to initiate positive changes, our vote would be focusing on a different path.

Our plea to anyone in a position of authority over our prison estates is help us to help residents help themselves. Transformation does not have to cost the earth, literally or metaphorically. Nature is in a constant state of regeneration and renewal. So our prisons could be too – and we believe engaging our low cost, high yielding systems across the wider community and all the land that it encompasses could hold that profound key. Let’s engage with some down to earth, common sense systems that reverse the trends, take back land and people into productive systems for the benefit of all and let’s do it now.

Anyone for a carrot?

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

Greener Growth's Director of Conservation Chris Mahon hosts IUCN Regional Conservation Forum, Europe, North & Central Asia, Rotterdam 2019

Greener Growth's Director of Conservation Chris Mahon hosts IUCN Regional Conservation Forum, Europe, North & Central Asia, Rotterdam 2019 #IUCNRCFRotterdam

Chris Mahon | IUCN-UK

More than 20 IUCN Member organisations and Commission Members from the UK attended the RCF in Rotterdam last week. Despite the sombre findings of the recent IPBES report and against a background of dire and unprecedented degradation of the natural world, the meeting was relatively upbeat. Maybe urgency creates focus, certainly the need for it. And as others elsewhere turned their backs on the European Union, here all participants embraced the opportunity as a means of collaborating to tackle the enormous task ahead of us. Not just Europe either as this event engaged beyond, to non-EU countries in West Europe and in North and Central Asia – from Greenland to the Kamkchatka Peninsula, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. Clearly, we need to work together – better.

Inspiration from many speakers but in particular for me the IUCN Acting Director General, Grethel Aguilar, with a message of hope and greater ambition, and an important question for the IUCN family – are you willing to increase the level of risk?

2020 will be a ‘superyear’ for nature conservation. Here in Rotterdam was the opportunity to pave the way to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France, in June next year, and influence beyond to the 15th Meeting of the CBD COP in Kunming, China, later in 2020, a critical meeting with the goal of putting in place a post-2020 framework for biodiversity protection.

A new draft IUCN programme for 2021-24 was analysed with an opportunity for all to input through workshop sessions and considerable guidance from Members was gathered for the next iteration of the draft. There was much emphasis on this being a programme for all involved in IUCN, not just a workplan for the Secretariat. It will engage us all and will rely on Member’s further participation in its delivery, as will the implementation of the many Motions to the Members Assembly coming forward for the next Congress, including several from UK Members.

The logistical organisation of the event by the National Committee for the Netherlands was an exemplar of what can be achieved by a National Committee, working closely with the Regional Office teams in Brussels and Belgrade, the programme was managed efficiently, accommodating over 400 delegates, a wide variety of speakers, workshop sessions, side events, field trips and a reception at the Natural History Museum.

National Committees gathered on the first morning for a well-received workshop session organised by the Working Group for National Committee Development. A presentation later in the programme dealt with the progress being made with forming an Interregional Committee which is close to reaching its goal of achieving 50% approval from Members, though less than half of Members contacted had responded to the consultation survey.

For more details on the activities and the RCF programme go to: www.iucn.org/rcf_rotterdam2019 or check out feedback at #IUCNRCFRotterdam

So, onwards towards the World Conservation Congress in Marseille, 11-19 June 2010, for which plans are well underway, and with a new draft programme for us all to get behind. Act soon to prepare your Motions to the Members Assembly, propose your side events and workshop sessions if you wish to lead them, and get fully engaged in the WCC next year. It’s not likely to be in Europe again for a very long time.

Chris Mahon

Chief Executive, IUCN National Committee UK

Chair, Working Group for National Committee Development Europe, North & Central Asia and IUCN Global Group for National and Regional Committee Development

Work starts at Jankyns Place

Works starts at Jankyns Place

We've started our third social housing project at Jankyns Place, in Bury St. Edmunds.

It's taken us a while to develop this project alongside Julian Support who provide support and care community for the residents. They have been incredibly helpful to work with and supported us as well as the residents in our objective for this work.

This project has been made possible through Metropolitan Thames Valley which provides provides housing at different levels of affordability for people living in London, the South East, East Midlands and East of England.

We are delighted that Metropolitan is funding the whole project for the next year, enabling us to continue working alongside Julian Support to provide our services.

Principlally a sheltered courtyard garden, we have begun work to transform Jankyns Place into a food-producing and conservation space which will include rasied beds, seating areas, bird boxes, bat boxes, insect hotels and food preparation/eating areas.

Thanks again to Metropolitan Thames Valley, Julian Support and all at Jankyns Place.

Paul working his magic up a ladder ... Again.

Help Our Crowd-funding Campaign

Help Our Crowd-funding Campaign!

Calling all those Greener Growth supporters out there and anyone new to our work.

A donation of just £5.00 each will get us off to a great start. It will provide the funds to ensure that a wonderful resource exists for children so that they can share their discoveries, network about nature and conservation, and most importantly, have fun while they do it!

Thank you!

gf.me/u/sr2gaw

What's the beef with eating less meat?

Pipers Farm

Wrongs Covert - Building the Community Kitchen & Wildlife Garden

A big thank you to volunteers Bryn, Huw, Robin, Matt and Jo for making such a difference to the work carried out at Wrongs Covert Woodland Restoration Project on Saturday, Jan. 31st.

Last time we were here a variety of orchard trees were planted and its seems, are still doing very well. This time, with Kathy Harris, owner and guardian of the Wrongs there to greet us, we got to work putting together some hefty planters for the community kitchen & wildlife garden.

It was a bitterly cold day and the only way to really keep warm was to keep active! Which means a lot of work was completed. With Robin's super-strong coffee, Jo's tasty home-baked cookies and Kathy's leek & potato soup, we were all suitably fuelled throughout the day. Huw's wife Jo was also eight months pregant but still managed to help out where she could! Impressive!

Then there was Matt who was a human dynamo. As GG co-director Sam Hardy mentions:

"Matt was a great asset, and had really great knowledge on the veggie beds as he has his own burgeoning market garden and tree nursery! I think the award for effort goes to him for cycling an hour in sub-zero temperatures to attend!!"

Volunteer Matt Richards after his bike ride to Wrongs

Thanks go to project manager Craig Lee for driving three hours in poor conditions; having all the right tools in the right place and for fixing the “goose gate” in double quick time.

Everyone put a great shift in today to make some magic happen for Kathy and all her future visitors!"

Below are a selection of photos all of which will eventually be found on the Wrongs Covert website along with a whole lot more. Thanks again to everyone who turned up to help.