Notting Dale, London W10 and W11
- Postcode Gardener: Liz Moxon
- Hosted by: Westway Trust
Postcode Gardener Liz is making a career change, using her experience in project management and community regeneration to become a gardener in Notting Dale and spend more time outside. Her work will be hosted by the Westway Trust, which was set up in 1970 to support the neighbourhood around a busy dual carriageway in West London.
It’s about the people who don’t garden or have green space. I want them to rediscover that nature is living just outside their front door.
Liz Moxon, Postcode Gardener
About the project
This Postcode Gardener project will focus on creating wildlife-friendly areas where the community can socialise, and on making the most of the space available in this very urban area. Together with local residents, Liz will help improve the green spaces that already exist and ensure they’re better connected, for example by mapping out places where things can be grown and by breaking up concrete to reclaim nature.
As many people in Notting Dale don’t have their own gardens, Liz will create an environment where they can learn how to garden for the spaces they do have, like balconies. The project will encourage residents to embrace wildlife-friendly gardening and, in the process, support their mental health, as well as combat isolation and loneliness.
Project volunteers will make use of Westway Trust’s existing gardening infrastructure, including composting facilities and beehives. Liz also plans to collaborate with other local organisations such as community groups, schools, gardening groups and housing associations.
Meet Liz, the Postcode Gardener
Liz has never had a garden, but she’s transformed her terrace into “an oasis where wildlife just falls on your head”. She wanted to finish up her working life outdoors, so during the pandemic she underwent a career change and began volunteering in organic market gardening to gain experience. This is her first employed gardening role.
She hopes to make use of her past experience, having previously worked in project management, in community regeneration, with housing estates, and with people facing mental health difficulties. By bringing energy and focus to the role, she hopes local people will get involved in the project and “engage with their own dreaming”.
Protecting the natural world has been at the heart of The Co-operative Bank’s unique, customer-led Ethical Policy for over 30 years, driven by their customers’ concerns for biodiversity and the environment.
Through our partnership, we're putting Postcode Gardeners into the most nature deprived neighbourhoods, to bring back nature and bring communities together.
