Ortus Tiny Forest: staff, partners and neighbours plant a new green space
Staff, partners and local neighbours recently came together at Ortus for a community planting day - creating a new Tiny Forest and transforming part of the gardens into a greener, more welcoming space.
Ortus is the Maudsley Charity home at Denmark Hill, an open-access building with a café and event spaces, where communities can come together to learn and share ideas.
The project was made possible through a biodiversity grant from Southwark Council, supporting long-term improvements to the garden environment. The plans were developed by Florent Buci (General Manager) and Ben (site gardener), with improvements designed to help the gardens cope better with wetter, warmer conditions - including water-absorbing planting areas and a small pond to support wildlife.
A shared day of volunteering
Colleagues from SLaM, King’s College London and Maudsley Charity, alongside volunteers and local neighbours, helped bring the Tiny Forest to life. The session was led by SUGi, an organisation that creates “pocket forests” to build biodiversity and wellbeing in communities.
Volunteers dug planting holes and planted young saplings as part of an activity designed to be simple and accessible, regardless of gardening experience.
Florent added: “It requires low maintenance and it grows really fast.”
In a conversation with Florent, he explained how the Tiny Forest will benefit both the gardens and local wildlife: “It will have a great visual impact. It will attract biodiversity and different birds, it will cool the area, and when it rains it will absorb a lot of water. It will also help purify the air, which is important given the amount of traffic nearby.”
Florent also explained the Miyawaki planting method: “It’s a Japanese method of planting trees very densely together and they grow very quickly.”
“The trees will be visible within two years… they can grow up to four metres and within 30 years we might have a visible tiny forest, where normally it would take probably 150 to 300 years.”
What happens next
Building on the day’s success, the team hopes to introduce a monthly volunteer scheme for light maintenance and continued care of the gardens.
Thank you to everyone who took part and helped make Ortus and the surrounding area a greener, calmer place to be.
