The Greenhouse Project started in 2021 when the Nature & Wellbeing team from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust took on the renovation of the long abandoned greenhouses, built in the 1970’s and left in 2009, in Witton Country Park, Blackburn. 

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust had started providing activities in nature as a way to promote positive mental / physical health in 2016. These activities were offered to people experiencing difficulties in their lives and often people were referred to the service via local mental health services, community organisations or social prescribers wanting to engage people in activities with others as a way to support them to feel better. The Greenhouse Project was a way of continuing this work for the people of Blackburn with Darwen while at the same time bringing back to life an amazing untapped resource of five 25m long interconnecting greenhouses. 

While the Greenhouse Project still offers the essential work of offering activities harnessing the power and accessibility of the natural world for people at difficult times in their lives it has grown far beyond that. People from across the whole community come on to the site to contribute, to learn, to connect with others and to benefit from the power of community and nature. The site has seen the establishment of a forest garden growing soft fruit and wildlife flowers, heritage apples / pears growing up against the perimeter wall, a wood workshop has been established and the greenhouses have seen the establishment of apricot, peach, fig, banana, grape, olive and nectarine trees which make an inspiring environment for people to come together. Each year one greenhouse is dedicated to the growing of annuals such as tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine, chillies and melons while another one has established itself as a venue for talks, solstice seasonal celebrations and wellbeing days.  

Excitingly the top old propagation greenhouse is now full of bog plants such as sphagnum mosses and cotton grasses that are part of the restoration of the damaged peatland on Darwen Moor than is bringing back the local landscape’s capacity to store carbon and water. The outside area of the Greenhouse Project has been re imagined and now hosts water capture, an outdoor kitchen, dry stone wall bed and community compost bay. An old builders cabin awaits restoration near the entrance which in days to come will play the part of a warm hub. Much of the work transforming the outside area has been undertaken by 2 men recovering from addiction and poor mental health who now offer other men the chance to become well by learning new construction related skills. 

The project has shown that being in nature can bring people together from all walks of life as nature cares not of our wealth, colour, age or background. The site supports both individuals as well as local groups to have a life more in harmony with nature and vitally connect more with each other. It is a place that for many has become home. 

Whilst the site at the Greenhouse Project has changed beyond recognition in its 5 years it still misses 2 essential ingredients that we need support in putting into place; a warm space and a compost toilet. 

We have people of all ages and abilities coming on site who are able to access our activities from the very physical to the gentle and artistic. Those who are unable to do physical work in the colder months get colder quicker and while they still come down they often don’t stay as long as they would like to as there is nowhere for them to keep warm. This shortcoming is also felt when we need to do administration work or have meetings on site. Thus a warm hub is needed. Fortunately a generous friend of the Greenhouses who was terminally ill purchased for us a cabin formerly used on building site. It has insulation and a local firm has donated some new double glazing units. We still need to purchase other elements to ensure it is clad appropriately, heated, powered and has a porch area. 

The amount of people we now get on site also means that we need a toilet within the complex. We do have access to a toilet within the park but need to be able to offer an accessible toilet for all the many people who come down the project and should have to leave it to use the toilet.  

Both the toilet and the warm cabin, like everything else on the site, are opportunities for us to use our design and construction skills and demonstrate a way of living that is more in harmony with the natural world. While the greenhouses show how to grow food and work with wood, these new elements to the project will incorporate environmental design features to further illustrate the possibilities and what can be done to be kinder to the natural world. 

To learn more, please visit The Greenhouse Project.