Things to look out for in the garden - BBC Breathing Places for non-garden owners

Not everyone wants, or can have, a garden. However, the BBC Breathing Places campaign has created many new green places, including gardens and allotments, for the nation. Here are details of a few to whet your appetite - then visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/ to find your own local place.

Troopers Hill, Bristol - In 2004, residents from east Bristol got together to protect, promote and improve their Local Nature Reserve. The listed 18th century chimney that dominates the hill was once part of a copper smelter and the site was also quarried for fire clay, mined for coal and produced creosote for the sleepers used on the Great Western Railway. When the tar works closed in the 1960s, brambles took over as did motorbike riders and rubbish. The friends of Troopers Hill have helped to give the hill a new lease of life. Broom and purple heather thrive on the acid soil, and wildlife has begun to colonise the area in safety again.

Bright Meadows, Bolton - Local residents wanted to do something about this formerly unsightly area, so they formed the Bright Meadows group. They involved young people in construction projects, painting, and planting raised beds. Now there is a regular art workshop for 10-14 year olds that mixes environmental education with activities such as making clay tiles for garden mosaics. The space is also used for a mums and toddlers group and as a venue for weekly horticulture sessions where training, seeds and compost are provided to local residents. An annual open day is held with a barbecue, Thai Chi and planting activities and residents can create their own hanging baskets with wildlife-friendly flowers and grow their own fruit and vegetables. Before the transformation, this area was a derelict, unused piece of land, often fly-tipped with rubbish.

Tilbury Riverside - between Tilbury Power Station and the Thames flood defences is an area of land known as 'the secret garden'. It had once been used as an illegal rubbish dump and was an eyesore, and a threat to wildlife in the Thames and on land The topsoil has now been scraped into a central mound that will be nutrient rich, where trees are being planted, leaving nutrient poor areas for a wildflower meadow. The meadow will be a habitat for the UK's largest fly, the rare hornet robber fly - a London Biodiversity Action Plan priority species. Peregrine falcons already visit place nearby, and have been seen over-flying from Canary Wharf, where they nest on the living roof of the Barclays Building, so the local support group wants to improve the environmental value of the site and encourage native species to nest in the area.

Garden New Forest Breathing Place photograph, author's own.

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