From a hospital garden in Birmingham to wet woodland in Yorkshire, these Foundation-funded projects brought nature into urban communities across the UK.

Urban areas have more green space than most people use. Parks, riverbanks, patches of woodland along railway embankments, nature reserves on the edge of housing estates. They exist, they're accessible, and they go largely unnoticed. The projects here are about changing that: planting new green spaces, maintaining them, and finding ways to bring in people who might not otherwise find their way.

Five hundred trees in Keighley

Trees for Cities plants urban trees in communities that need them most. A Foundation grant contributed to a project in Keighley, West Yorkshire, where flooding from an emergent spring had left a difficult patch of land underused. The solution was wet woodland: 500 Alder and Willow whips planted in a community event, creating a habitat that is now rare across much of the UK, rich in insects and home to species that have been lost from many areas.

For many of the school children involved, it was their first time planting a tree. Keighley is one of the more deprived areas of West Yorkshire, and the planting day was designed not just to create the woodland but to connect residents with how it works: how to identify species, how trees function in local ecosystems, how to plant correctly. The woodland is now established. Trees for Cities returned later to report on its progress, in Catching Up With Trees for Cities.

Rediscovering Leeds on foot

Richard has spent eight years helping people in Leeds discover what's on their doorstep. His organisation, Running Seeds, runs walk, run and cycle activities focused on greenspace navigation: routes through parks, riverside paths and woodland that are within walking distance for most participants but that most have never used.

"Crucially, activities include town-to-town greenspace navigation to subconsciously remap geographical perceptions — reducing car-keys-first behaviours as ability realisation takes hold. It's helped people discover Leeds, bond the area, plus get fitter mentally and physically through active travel. Importantly, this is based right on the doorstep without travelling away first."

A Foundation grant covered first aid training and equipment to keep the sessions running through winter. Since that initial support, Richard has delivered more than 550 activities to over 5,000 participants. The weekly Farsley Flyers mini-hikes go out for two hours and four to five miles through the trails of West Leeds, torchlit through the darker months. Longer routes reach Otley, Bingley, Harrogate and Wakefield entirely on foot.

"Most say they've learnt more about Leeds in a few weeks than five years of working there."

A garden inside a hospital

Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is one of the largest hospitals in the country. It sits on the site of an ancient Roman fort, which means the grounds must be preserved — and they have been turned into something more than a constraint. The hospital's Green Spaces project runs weekly Green Gym sessions for patients and staff, alongside gardening, planting and conservation activities open to the local community. Dawn chorus walks, dusk chorus walks and birdwatching sessions take place in the hospital grounds. A Foundation grant helped fund supplies for the project's workshops and community events.

"The sessions are accessible for all patients and staff. It has been great to see so many people join together and enjoy the great outdoors whilst also learning new skills, building confidence and making friends."

A sensory garden at Attenborough

The Attenborough Nature Reserve, just outside Nottingham, is managed by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. The reserve's visitor and education centre has a wildlife garden, and the Trust has worked to make it genuinely accessible to everyone who visits.

A Foundation grant supported the installation of sensory planters in the garden, built in collaboration with the Erewash VIPs, a group for visually impaired visitors. The planters were chosen for texture, scent and sensory interest, fitted with labels designed by an artist to be explored by touch. Smaller planters were made for group members to take home. The larger ones became permanent centrepieces of the garden, serving as both an accessible feature and a legacy from the group to future visitors.

"The garden is a safe and enclosed environment for these groups to explore and experience nature and hopefully be inspired to improve and protect the natural environment in their own green spaces and gardens."

The completed garden is now used by school groups, community organisations and dementia support groups, as well as the general public visiting the reserve.

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The Foundation supports organisations and individuals working to open up the outdoors and bring more people into it. If you have a project that fits, find out how to apply.