From vibrant wildflower meadows in Daubeney Fields to new pollinator pitstops along Homerton High Street, nature is thriving across our borough. Catch up on the latest Hackney Buzz updates to see how local residents, volunteers, and international partners are transforming council estates, school grounds, and parklets into vital havens for urban wildlife.

Buzzline Pitstops

We’re now completing the stretch of the Hackney Buzzline connecting Millfields park to Mabley Green.

Millfields Tree Biomes

In our first year we planted 5000 English bluebells in a Miyawki-inspired tree circle on Millfields park. The native woodland is one of six ‘biomes’ planted by Hackney’s Tree Musketeers. Our ecologist Gerry has found the bluebell carpet provides perfect nesting habitat for solitary mining bees in spring. We’ll now plant the other tree biomes with pollinator plants from each region. This autumn we’ll add Japanese Anemones to the East Asia biome, which we’ve grown in the Tree Musketeers nursery. In the Alpine biome we’ll put in Autumn crocus bulbs and Sweet woodruff.

Clapton Park Estate

We’ve built a chain of pollinator pitstops connecting Millfields and Daubeney Fields through the Clapton Park Estate. Earlier this year we restored wildflower railings outside four housing blocks on Mandeville Street, bringing life and colour back to the ‘Poppy Estate’. We also added bee hotels and drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants that suit our changing climate.

Daubeney Fields Meadows

The meadows we sowed alongside new paths in the park rewarded us with a stunning display of wildflowers this spring. “Everyone has commented how marvellous they look,” said one resident. They’ve been buzzing with pollinators - from Blue Mason bees and Red-tailed Bumblebees to Common Blue and Painted Lady butterflies.

Concorde Youth Hub

We’ve installed three pollinator planters in the Concorde Youth Hub forecourt on the Kingsmead Estate. At the front of the forecourt, we helped children from neighbouring Kingsmead School plant bright yellow sunflowers. The children grew the sunflowers from seeds collected by an estate resident who sadly recently passed away.

Connecting Nature, Connecting People

Hackney Council has awarded us funds to extend the Hackney Buzzline from Mabley Green to Homerton Grove. This means we can make five new pollinator pitstops along Homerton High Street.

Mabley Green

Buzzline volunteers are making the first pollinator pitstop in a corner of Mabley Green. They’re replacing 90 tonnes of dug-out topsoil with Thanet sand, pebbles and rocks. They’re building banks from logs and crushed concrete and will add plants, a brash hedge, standing wood and dry-stone bee banks. These warm, low-nutrient habitats support diverse pollinator communities on the Hackney Buzzline, including several species of conservation importance or suffering decline.

Linzell Estate

ecoACTIVE began improving the community garden on the Linzell Estate in 2018. Postcode gardener Rachael has now redesigned the garden to offer a play zone with logs and a children’s pollinator game. Her plan also includes a natural path, relaxed mowing areas, wildflower strips, a bee nesting zone and climbing plants. Volunteers and estate residents will start creating a new family-friendly garden this month.

Homerton Library

We’re transforming a neglected space outside Homerton community library into a pollinator-friendly area. Rachael has consulted library users on a concept which invites people to engage with nature there. Her design includes a log circle with a crab apple tree, bee hotels and pollinator installation. It includes shrubs and borders, wild areas enhanced with feral flowers, sandy paths and living walls for solitary bees. Volunteers will start creating an enticing new garden in October.

Homerton Grove Adventure Playground

Buzzline volunteers have installed a greenhouse at the Adventure Playground so children can grow vegetables from seed and learn about the interactions between food plants and pollinators. Rachael is helping the kids plant out the vegetables along with companion pollinator plants. We’re also helping them understand how the playground’s bees and butterflies use the space.

Community Gardeners

The way Hackney’s community gardeners are growing the Hackney Buzzline is a great model for pollinator-led nature recovery.

Hackney Housing

Earlier this year Hackney Housing asked us to teach them how to make the borough’s council housing estates better for pollinators. Together with gardening company GrowN22 we delivered four training days for 30 grounds maintenance staff on the Gascoyne and De Beauvoir estates. We showed them how to enhance orchard and woodland projects for pollinators by sowing wildflower meadows, building brash hedges and constructing bee nesting habitats. On the Gascoyne Estate we even resurfaced a bit of the hidden Hackney Brook to make a willow wetland.

Garden Party

We organised a summer party with Core Landscapes in their beautiful garden behind Homerton’s St Barnabas Church, providing music, stalls, talks and activities. Over 400 people joined us to celebrate nature and hear from community gardeners and local groups helping to recovering nature in their neighbourhoods. The event formed part of our Connecting Nature, Connecting People programme, supported by the Hackney Community Fund. It was addressed by Hackney Council Climate Cabinet Member, Jacob Cable.

Community Learning

We now offer sessions in pollinator gardening, based on the Hackney Buzzline. Rachael and Gerry have delivered two learning sessions for community gardeners this year, funded by BUPA. Sessions include an introduction to pollinators you can find on the Buzzline and how to plant and create habitats to support them. They also include visits to Buzzline pollinator pitstops and a community learning discussion.

Bamboo Court

The Hackney Buzzline has inspired neighbours on Bamboo Court near Millfields park to create three pollinator gardens in a lifeless lawn outside their flats. Residents crowdfunded more than £2000 to buy pollinator-friendly plants and low-nutrient substrates and we supported them with advice, tools and fundraising. The residents dug and plant the gardens in spring and watered and tended them all summer. The pollinator gardens now form part of the Hackney Buzzline Community Map.

Plant Bursary

We’ve raised over £2,000 through Big Give crowdfunding to set up a pollinator plant bursary for Hackney’s community gardeners. The bursary pot provides support for plants, materials, and guidance to create pollinator habitats in public spaces. We’re launching the scheme in autumn to help residents grow the pollinator corridor, learn from each other, and put their gardens on the Hackney Buzzline Community Map.

Buzzline Visitors

We’ve welcomed some important visitors to the Hackney Buzzline this year.

BBC London

London’s flagship news programme came to Hackney to interview Rachael and Gerry about the Buzzline’s role as a key ecological link in a 14-mile nature corridor. To launch the idea, Wild Cities took 100‘pollinator pilgrims’ to see the Buzzline as part of a walk through the Lee Valley.

University College London

Award-winning artist Emma Smith brought another 100 visitors to the Hackney Buzzline for the University College London Manifold public art project. UCL has commissioned Emma to create an art installation, engagement programme and exhibition to address challenges around biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and climate change. Her guided tour of Buzzline pitstops aimed to deepen understanding of connectivity as part of local and global ecologies.

Deputy Mayor of London

London’s Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy Mete Coban visited the Nightingale Estate Napoleon Road Parklet to launch a new Hackney Good Gym volunteering scheme. The Napoleon Road parklet was one of the first Hackney Buzzline projects and was showcased at last year’s London Nature Films Festival. At the event Mete called for a London-wide conversation to democratise spaces for people and restore dignity to communities.

Citizen Scientists

We’ve set up a Hackney Pollinator Patrol iNaturalist group for people who want to help build a better picture of Hackney’s pollinators. Meanwhile, MSc ecology students on the UCL City Nature Challenge took a look at how we can best support people to do this. Their findings will help us develop this strand of work.

Buzzlines International

We’ve set up a new network called Buzzlines International which brings together pollinator projects around the world. Four countries have now joined the network.

Uganda

Our sister project in Uganda is gearing up for its second Kampala Bee Run event on 25 October. The Kampala Buzzline launched the world’s first Bee Run last year, attracting over 350 runners. The event in Uganda’s capital city help funds a Green Schools challenge and a pollinator plant nursery at a home for vulnerable young women. Gerry will represent the Hackney Buzzline on the run. Email [email protected] if you’d like to join him.

Costa Rica

The first Costa Rica Bee Run will take place on 6 December to launch a ‘Tourist Biological Corridor’ on Central America’s famous Mar a Mar hiking trail. The run, through one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, will help fund pollinator gardens in communities and pollinator education in schools along the trail. Click on the links to find out how to participate in either of these two runs.

Nepal

The Darwin Nepal Pollination Project is starting nine park pollinator schemes in cities around the country, supported by Bristol University. We’ll be learning from each other about how to engage with schools and communities on pollinator conservation. The Nepal project grew out of research into the nutritional and economic benefits of pollination for vulnerable communities, published in Nature in May.

Hackney Buzzline Volunteering

Hundreds of people have volunteered on the Hackney Buzzline over the last two years. Many members of the community, local schoolchildren and corporate volunteers have given up their valuable time. We couldn’t build the Buzzline without your help - for which we are truly grateful. Everyone is welcome to join us - whether for one session or on a regular basis. It’s a way to meet like-minded people, get some outdoor exercise, and help make Hackney a better place for people and pollinators. Discover how in the Volunteer & Keep Updated section on the ecoACTIVE website.

The Hackney Buzz - Hackney Buzzline News Sept 2026