Volunteer
Volunteer at Cultivate Colindale
Wayward Plants, together with our partner Energy Garden, runs weekly volunteer sessions at Cultivate Colindale, from gardening and site stewardship to building and making. It’s a chance to learn new skills, share your own and help shape the site as it grows.
Whatever your experience, we’d love you to get involved. We provide all the tools, so you just need to bring yourself. Volunteer as much or as little as you like. Sessions are friendly, informal and a great way to meet new people.
Weekly Drop-In Sessions
Once you’ve completed our volunteer registration and onboarding, you can join our regular drop-in sessions:
Wednesdays 10:00–13:00
Fridays 13:00–16:00
Community Builds
From time to time, we come together for bigger Community Builds, working intensively over a few days or a week to make something happen. Upcoming projects include an outdoor community kitchen and classroom, a biodiversity area and pond, and a children’s nature play area. If you can’t make the weekly sessions but would like to join a Community Build, sign up anyway. We’ll let registered volunteers know when these special projects are coming up.
Allotment Plots
Our community growing area has 20 raised allotment plots for local residents to grow food, flowers and plants at Cultivate Colindale. The plots are free and intended for active, regular use as part of a lively public space and growing community.
All of our plots are currently allocated, but we keep a waiting list as spaces become available. If you live locally and are interested in a plot, come by during our opening hours and speak to our Head Gardener, Azalea, to find out more and join the waiting list.
Volunteer Opportunities at the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre and Beyond
Want to support plant reuse across London? Wayward Plants rescues plants, trees and landscape materials that would otherwise go to waste and finds new homes for them in community gardens, schools and other green spaces across the city.
Wayward Plants volunteering is currently occasional rather than a regular weekly programme, with opportunities coming up as plants arrive, need to be cared for or are ready to move on to new homes.
You might help with plant identification and cataloguing, propagation, watering and plant care, potting and repotting, organising and moving plants around the reuse yard, or preparing large collections for redistribution. Plant knowledge is especially useful, as is being happy to get stuck into some heavier lifting, although neither is essential.
This is a separate volunteer list from our regular Cultivate Colindale volunteering, and you’re welcome to sign up for either or both. We’ll get in touch when we need extra hands at the Reuse Centre, as well as about opportunities further afield, including plant rescues, adoption events and volunteering with us at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Corporate Volunteering
Looking for a hands-on volunteering day for your team?
We can host corporate groups at Cultivate Colindale for practical days supporting the Cultivate Colindale site and the Wayward Plants Reuse Centre. Depending on what’s happening at the time, your team might help with planting and growing, caring for and moving rescued plants, biodiversity projects, community builds or other practical projects that make a lasting contribution to the site and our wider work.
We can shape the day around the size and interests of your group, and wherever possible connect it to a real project or need rather than creating a volunteering activity for its own sake.
Corporate volunteering is arranged separately from our regular volunteer programme. Get in touch to discuss your group, what you’re looking for and upcoming opportunities.