Radicle Plant Walks London - Wanstead Park

Want to engage with the plants in your landscape in a deeper way? What are their stories and how have they arrived here? How do they fit into the local ecology and global context? How can we protect and work with them? Radicle Plant Walks weave botany, horticulture, herbalism, foraging and social history to explore local plantscapes in their fullest sense. Together we will understand the complex history of plants, honour their stories, discuss the gifts of the plants growing around us, and explore how we can build community resilience and create a future based on respect for the land, plants, all peoples and creatures. We will be looking at all manner of plants, from street trees, to ornamental plants, and those growing wild, and considering among other things, their ecology, uses and cultivation. These walks are not just about plant identification or foraging. Whilst you will no doubt learn to identify more plants and better understand their uses, the walks are intended to inspire honest discussion and shift perspectives. Join us to see the world through the lens of plants. At the end of the walk, we will spend time together with a herbal tea, reflecting on the stories of the plants we have met and our relationships with them. Please bring your own reusable mug/cup to help us reduce our impact on the Earth 💚 Location We will be exploring Wanstead Park in East London. We've timed the date and location of the walk so that we can go to the Waltham Forest Food Growers' Network Harvest Fair afterwards, at Good Shepherd Studios in Leytonstone. You can find out more about that here. Accessibility The walk will be step-free and we will be moving around at a gentle pace. We will stop at each plant for up to 15 minutes at a time, for some plants there may be a bench nearby, however this is usually not the case. Whilst based around the spoken word, the walks are multisensory, and we encourage touching, smelling, and tasting of plants where safe to do so. If you have any specific accessibility needs, please do not hesitate to contact us on [email protected]. About the facilitators The walks will be facilitated by Than Gunabalasingham of Nourish the Wild CIC and Claire Turner of Ahimsa Apothecary Herbals. Than is a horticultural educator, with a background in food and environmental policy research. Claire is a medical herbalist with a background in community food growing. They are both fascinated by the stories of the plants we find around us, and how we can live more closely with plants in our daily lives. Find us on instagram @nourishthewild and @ahimsaapothecaryherbals