A web of healing medicine gardens at the heart of our communities

This website is currently in the process of being published - we are doing this in sections, so you may find that there are a number of pages missing or password protected while we edit and refine them. We all work part time on this project, so it may take some time before the whole site is active.

Community Apothecary Waltham Forest is a community herbalism project expressed through the three aspects of gardens, learning and medicines. It is a developing vision, a practical action and an ongoing collaborative work. 

We are a CIC (community interest company) with a core team of four: Izzy, Jayne, Jonny & Rasheeqa, who are herb growers, land workers and medical herbalist. We have a wider crew of participants taking part in different elements of the project, and a steering group of Kat and Mel, two of our regular volunteers. 

Our aim is making plant medicine accessible in our local lands, from the roots to the remedy, so that people can take part in mutually supportive healthcare - from connecting with the ecosystems, to cultivating healing medicine and learning together, to exchanging life experiences and stories, to harvesting herbs and making medicines together, to using the medicines for health and wellbeing - we all take part in the processes, rather than some people selling and some people buying in an artificial and damaging hierarchy. Herbal medicine is an ancient human-plant practice that resounds with power and possibility for human and ecosystem health, and in our work we also seek to restore balance where its knowledges from indigenous cultures around the world have been suppressed, discredited and invalidated through processes of colonialism, by hearing, re-seeding and re-centering, always with critical thinking, marginalised knowledge and traditional healing practices held within our communities. We believe these approaches have potential to regenerate and revitalise our relationships at multiple levels - with each other, with the earth ecosystems and with our histories.

Currently we have a patchwork of medicine gardens in Waltham Forest, with regular weekly sessions at Mulberry Close in Chingford and Clyde Place in Leyton, along with a looser web of connected gardens in Walthamstow that we co-develop with other local growers groups, to strengthen our networks of knowledge & resource-sharing and support in our neighbourhoods. We offer workshops and courses in plant medicine, in the gardens, at the Hornbeam Centre in Walthamstow and at Organiclea Community Growers in Chingford. Our remedies are available through the Gleaners Cafe at the Hornbeam.

Find out more about our mission and values here.

If you would like to get involved: