🌿 Bringing life & natural decay processes back to the city: TaiMet Ry’s Biodiverse Communities in Helsinki, Finland 🌿

We are grateful for Helsinki - one of the world’s most liveable cities.

Yet here within Helsinki’s lively urban region, exists a concrete urban jungle often void of natural life and decay. Many of Helsinki's street corners are grey and bare, residential precincts and sidewalks are paved and urban parks and recreational areas are often laden with gravel instead of soil or other biogenic materials, primarily for the ease and accessibility over long dark winters for regular snow plough maintenance. But it does not have to be that way, and with smarter eco-friendly design, these areas can be livened up. TaiMet Ry’s mission is to help turn these grey forgotten areas of Helsinki into living, breathing ecosystems. We establish our own concept of an urban garden (what we name ‘Magic Forest Garden’) based upon permaculture principles and scientific knowledge of soil, fungal and plant ecologies as well as nature-based engineering practices towards solving environmental health and human health-related challenges. We incorporate native plants, native fungi, locally sourced deadwood and soil amendments for developing rich soils on-site that seeks to support threatened biodiversity, enhance local pollinators, improve urban carbon-storage, boost community well-being and clean-up the urban air.

Why It Matters

Scientific research backs this up:

• Green infrastructure improves air quality. Urban vegetation can trap dust and fine particles, and this is a serious issue for Helsinki when the snow melts in Spring (Hewitt et al., 2019) 

  • The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) conducted a study, funded by the Helsinki Region Environmental Authority (HSY), which used sick leave data for City of Helsinki employees as well as HSY’s air quality data. It observed almost two million annual absences of city employees between 2002 to 2017 and found that sick leave increased by 1.8 percent in Helsinki area due to dust:

"On the worst days of street dust, employees of the City of Helsinki may take several dozen more sick absences than on an average day," THL Chief Researcher Professor Timo Lanki said (Yle, 2020)

• Permaculture builds resilience. Urban permaculture research (Yassein & Ebrahiem, 2024) highlights how biodiverse, citizen-driven gardens strengthen ecosystems and communities alike.

• Healthy soils and urban gardens = healthy cities. Healthy living soils and diverse native polycultures of plants store more carbon 4, 5, 6, support pollinators 6, 7, 8 and foster mental well-being 9, 10, 11

Our Approach

Each TaiMet Ry magic forest garden is:

🌱 Biodiverse — native plants, fungi and deadwood habitats.

🌍 Soil-positive — layered compost and mulch create self-sustaining fertility.

👩‍🌾 Community-driven — workshops, volunteering and shared harvests bring people together.

💨 Urban-smart — green layers that help reduce dust and improve air quality.

♻️ Circular-sourced — established using revalued local materials like deadwood, compost, and soil amendments, turning urban waste into new life.

Join Us

Feel free to join our community to take part in gardening or talkoot events, donate, or simply being part of a growing grassroots movement for a greener, healthier and more connected Helsinki—one magic forest garden at a time.

👉 Get involved! join our Whatsapp community!

— TaiMet Ry • Cultivating biodiversity, health & local garden-centered communities