What’s going on in Birmingham and near Small Heath?

The best way to help the planet is to get involved where you live - and there is so much going on in and around Small Heath!

This guide is your passport to exploring and protecting the amazing wildlife and natural spaces on your doorstep. Dive in to discover fun activities, places and groups to make a difference!

The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust

The Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust are working to protect the amazing wildlife in your area. You can find rare animals such as watervoles and polecats to dragonflies and kingfishers, as well as many plants and animals that have been brought here from across the world, such as African Parakeets!

Hidden in the middle of Small Heath is EcoPark (B10 9HH), a secret garden full of wonderful wildlife! It is a great place for families, schools and anyone who love nature. Some fun activities include:

• Nature Tots: Every Friday morning, preschool children can join for mini-beast hunts, pond-dipping, and woodland games.
• Become a young conservationist: Become a young conservationist by eco-recording your local wildlife. You can help scientists by noting down the animals and plants you see around you. Check out more at Eco-record.
• Midlands Climate Cafes: A space for young people to come and talk about their feelings around climate change.

EcoBirmingham

Working across Birmingham, EcoBirmingham has loads of great ways to get involved with saving the planet while having fun!

• Wild Holiday Bunch: A holiday club for 6-12 year olds where you can follow trails, create nature crafts, and even build dens.
• Stories4Nature: Inspiring the future generation of little David Attenboroughs, these sessions for the under 5’s look at the natural world through the power of stories. Every Thursday at 10am you can join in an interactive storytelling and crafts session in EcoBirmingham’s secret garden (B31 2LB) for free.
• Cycle South Brum: Cycle South Brum teaches people of all ages and abilities to get pedalling. They offer:
  • Cycle tuition for children and adults.
  • Route finding information and events
  • Bike maintenance classes for children and adult.
  • Led rides for all abilities. And cycling tuition.
• Mini Craftivists and Forest School Workshops: Just like Amala and her friends, you can do a Forest School session to learn about how to respect the environment, re-use, recycle and repair!

Birmingham Botanical Gardens

With tons of activities to help us understand the importance of biodiversity, plants and conservation, the Botanical Gardens (B15 3TR) is a great place to be! They run regular events for families including:

• Half term Jurassic Gardens. Check out their holiday clubs with take us back in time to lear about the nature of the past!
• Summer Butterfly House opening: Let your imaginations take flight as you walk through the Butterfly House and see a kaleidoscope of colourful butterflies from across the globe.
• Family Explorers - Pond Dipping Learn about what lies below the surface of the pond. Use your net to see what you can uncover - there’s more in the water than you might think!

Community Gardens and Allotments

If you and your family are interested in finding an allotment of your own, you can find a plot through the allotment association. Bordesley Green Allotments, Yardley Green Allotments and Fernbank Road Allotments are all less than 2 miles from Small Heath!

If you’d rather get involved in gardens which are already thriving but may need community support, community gardens are a great way to go!

• All Saints Community Garden (B10 0JP) are a local church with a community garden group. The gardening group meets on Tuesdays at 10:30am to help the community learn about gardening and reap the benefits of being outside in nature.
• Martineau Gardens (B5 7UG) occasionally offer family gardening activities and pond dipping events. They are hoping to run a play scheme over summer holidays for children who have free school meals or live in temporary accommodation. Contact them via their website!
• Fruit and Nut village, Fruit & Nut Village grow orchards with working with local communities across Balsall Heath, Druids Heath and Stirchley. Check out their website to see what’s going on!
• Highbury Community Orchard (B13 8QG) wants to bring people into contact with nature, teaching everyone how we can look after our environment and offering forest school experiences of all shapes and sizes. They host Woodland Play sessions for families with 0-8 year olds every Wednesday and monthly Sundays with lots of different activities. You can keep up on their facebook page here
• Masefield Community Garden (B31 2DT) hosts a Young Gardeners Club every Saturday 10am-12pm!

Want to get gardening yourself?

Do you want to try some planting? The Patchwork Meadow gives away local wildflower seeds to plant pocket meadows, making a patchwork of wildflowers throughout the city. This creates ‘pit stops for bees’ so they can travel throughout the city and pollinate it! You can order seed packets which give you everything you need to make a one meter square pocket meadow, and they send you the right seeds for the spot, so remember to tell them if it will be somewhere sunny, shady, hilly etc!

In Kings Heath, Thrive Birmingham has training for young people 14+ to learn how to garden. If you’d like to be a gardener, or just get some growing skills, check out their Grow and Learn programme.

City Farms

Do you love animals? City farms are a great way to meet farm animals and learn how to look after them.

• Balsall Heath City Farm, B12 8NN
• Manor Park Farm, Northfield B31 2AB, you can find out about more events such as their Autumn Antics family event in Autumn half term, their Dawn Chorus Walk for birdwatching (Like bird girl!!) and their mid-september Bat Walk.

Nature Reserves and Wildlife Parks

There are loads of amazing nature reserves across Birmingham where you can immerse yourself in nature! Below are a few stand outs, but you can find a full list of parks, playgrounds and open spaces in Birmingham on the Birmingham council website.

• Sandwell Valley (B71 4BG) With a rich variety of habitats, there is a huge amount of wildlife to discover. Enjoy wild play activities and explore nature trails such as the Big Wild Pyjama Party for families, weekly meet ups for parents with toddlers to connect with nature and Wild Craft Thursdays throughout the holidays.
• Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park (B5 7R): Have a day out to meet the animals from across the world and learn about how important they are in our global ecosystem!
• Moseley Bog (B13 9YP) : Only 2 miles from Small Heath, you can discover the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s forests in The Lord of the Rings.
• Edgbaston Reservoir (B16 9EE): As well as being a great recreational hub, it is a designated Local Nature Reserve supporting a variety of birdlife as well as newts and bats!

Community Groups

The Community Environmental Trust, (B35 7NR) based in Castle Vale reserve is an environmental charity getting everyone involved!

• Vale Youth Green Action: is a programme for 8-16 year olds in the school holidays where you learn about conservation, do seasonal outdoor activities, and fun environmental fieldtrips to learn about new habitats.
• Interested in Hiking? The Trust also support young people to achieve their Duke of Edinburgh award - a voluntary, non-competitive programme of activities for anyone aged 14 to 24. It gives young people the opportunity to experience new activities or develop existing skills.
• Lastly their Wildflower Meadow is a beautiful place to visit in Spring and Summer!

The Birmingham Settlement Nature & Wellbeing Centre, in Edgbaston Reservoir (B16 0SL) is a green oasis in the heart of the city! With space to learn, play and have a bite to eat, there is something for everyone. Come down to learn about sustainable living!

• Their weekly schedule has lots of great opportunities to get involved with, with nature running clubs and a little settlers nature club for kids!
• They also hold brilliant summer festivals for all the family to think about the future of your neighnourhoods, check out if there’s one coming up here!

Retrofit Balsall Heath brings people together to think about how we can adapt our homes to emit less carbon and bring down our energy bills! You can get involved by:

• Visiting their zero carbon house which has been designed to use zero fossil fuels!
• Join the festivities! Every second saturday of the month at the Old Print Works, B129AH, they host a festival with a repair cafe, workshops and activities for everyone.
• Check out their nature map! It maps and celebrates the precious green spaces in Balsall Heath, can you find all of them? If you were to make one for Small Heath, what would it look like?

The Khidmat Centre Cycle Hub in Small Heath have bikes for local residents to rent and use! You can get cycling and go on group rides around the Park. Check out their website for more.

Clean the streets!

Help keep Birmingham clean by joining a local litter picking group such as:

• Spark Pickers who operate between Small Heath and Balsall Heath
• Clathorpe Eco Warriors who operate around Small Heath in the Highgate Area
• Kings Heath and Brandwood Litter Pickers meet every sunday at 10am near Kings Heath

Want to find your nearest group? Check on the council website!

Great Big Green Week

The Great Big Green Week is the UKs biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change! Many of the groups listed above will run events in Great Big Green Week - you can find local events near your postcode.