A printing company on a Norwich industrial estate probably isn’t the first place you’d expect to find in National Geographic. But that’s exactly where they found us. Back in 2022, Dynamic Print was featured in a National Geographic article about rewilding in the UK — and it wasn’t because of our printing presses, hot foiling or embossing! It was because of what we’d been doing outside the workshop.
From brick rubble to buzzing with life
When we first looked at the space around our unit, it wasn’t exactly a wildlife haven. There was a big thorn bush, plenty of brick rubble and not much else. It was an ordinary bit of an industrial estate. Warehouses, businesses, deliveries, machinery… you get the idea. But we thought it could be better. So, rather than leaving it as it was, we started giving nature a bit more room. We planted wildflowers, grasses, lavender and poppies. We created ponds, a rock garden, a vegetable patch and an area for herbs. We added a compost heap and started leaving parts of the space a little less manicured. And then something rather lovely happened.
Wildlife moved in.
Bees arrived for the flowers.
Birds started visiting.
Field mice appeared.
The ponds attracted even more life.
Suddenly, what had been an uninspiring corner of a Norwich industrial estate was buzzing, crawling, growing and generally getting on with being wild. And we loved it.
Why Dynamic Print went wild
The idea was inspired partly by WildEast, which encourages people across East Anglia to give 20% of their land back to nature.
We loved the idea because it doesn’t have to be complicated.
You don’t need acres of countryside.
You don’t need a huge garden.
And you certainly don’t need to be a professional gardener!
You can make a difference with whatever space you’ve got.
For us, that happened to be a piece of land around a printing company on an industrial estate. It seemed like a pretty good place to start.
Then National Geographic came knocking
We never expected our little project to attract the attention of National Geographic. But in 2022, they came to see what we’d been doing as part of a feature looking at rewilding across the UK. And there we were Dynamic Print, a Norwich printing company, appearing in National Geographic for our rather unexpected wildlife project. We were absolutely delighted. The feature looked at how small, overlooked pieces of land can be transformed and given back to nature. Our space was a perfect example.
It isn’t a country estate.
It isn’t a nature reserve.
It’s an industrial estate.
And that’s really the point.
You don’t have to make everything tidy
One of the things we’ve learned is that nature doesn’t necessarily want everything to be neat and tidy.
A little long grass can provide shelter.
Wildflowers provide food for bees and other pollinators.
A pond creates somewhere for wildlife to drink and live.
A compost heap brings its own little community.
Sometimes doing less is actually doing more.
So we’ve become quite comfortable with things looking a little wild.
There are still weeds.
There are still bits that probably wouldn’t win any gardening competitions.
And that’s fine.
Because when you see bees buzzing around the flowers or spot a little field mouse disappearing into the undergrowth, it suddenly doesn’t seem quite so important that everything looks perfect.
We’re still a printing company, though!
Don’t worry we haven’t abandoned the presses and become full-time gardeners. We’re still very much Dynamic Print. We’re still hot foiling, embossing, debossing, die cutting and printing for our customers from our Norwich base. We’ve just got a rather unusual little side project growing around us. And, to be honest, we rather like it.
Read the National Geographic feature
We were incredibly proud to be included in National Geographic’s feature about rewilding in the UK.
Read the full National Geographic article here.
It’s a great reminder that you don’t need a huge amount of land to make a difference. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of space, a few wildflowers and the willingness to let nature do its thing. Who knew a Norwich industrial estate could be a wildlife hotspot? We certainly didn’t. But we’re very glad it is.
