By Dan Davies

Railway Gardens is celebrating a year since it secured funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. In that time the project has involved 74 volunteers, been a part of 56 events, and included 1,077 people in its various activities. The project, which is based in Splott, Cardiff, is on the site of a formerly derelict site by the side of a railway track.

Starting with a wildlife pond, the group has since gone on to add three new meadows to the space, four wildlife habitat boxes and one log pile. On top of this, an association with groups such as Extinction Rebellion have helped spread how important behaving in an environmentally sustainable way is to their local community.

The project hasn’t been without its challenges, as difficulties keeping the plants alive over the summer heatwaves and problems utilising one of its larger spaces, ‘the hub’, mean the site has plenty of untapped potential going into year two.

We spoke to project manager Hannah Garcia about the Railway Gardens’ first year of funding and how the project is shaping up for the future…