Groundworks: Nature, Culture, Community Hub
Groundworks in Pockwood Pond offers a 2.5-acre, wheelchair-accessible destination combining a plant nursery, construction services, cafe and family attractions. Highlights include Parrot Paradise aviary, the territory’s only covered playground, and the new 1926 Museum celebrating BVI maritime heritage.
Groundworks, located on the southwestern coast of Tortola in Pockwood Pond, has grown from a landscaping business into a multi-use community destination spanning 2.5 acres. The site is wheelchair-accessible and operates a full suite of services — Landscaping, Potscapes, a Plant Nursery, Trucking, Excavation and Light Construction — while adding visitor attractions designed for families, nature lovers and cultural explorers.
One of Groundworks’ headline features is Parrot Paradise, a 2,500 sq. ft. aviary housing more than 300 birds across roughly 25 species. The aviary has become popular with school tours, families and bird enthusiasts, and visitors are encouraged to interact and take photographs with many of the birds.
Groundworks also promotes what it says is the territory’s only covered playground, complete with slides, monkey bars, a splash pad and other water features. The covered design protects children from sun and rain, and an adjacent event deck is available for private dinners, meetings and community events such as farmers markets and horticulture expos.
A snack bar on site provides refreshments for guests. Cultural programming is anchored by the planned 1926 Museum, which focuses on the maritime history of the Virgin Islands. The museum will highlight the story of the Fancy Me and other Tortola sloops that helped shape local trade.
Exhibits will include coal pots, kerosene lamps, vintage photographs and traditional maritime tools. Groundworks is inviting community contributions to help build the collection and make the space a living tribute to local history. The organisation traces its roots to the 1980s as a palm tree installation company and was reinvented in 2006 as a landscaping business with three employees.
Shirley Recreation Grounds led to hundreds of landscaping jobs across the territory. After Hurricane Irma, IKON Construction emerged from the company’s building work; today IKON and Groundworks Heavy Equipment operate a fleet of specialized machines and undertake projects from fencing and gates to gabions and full structures.
The on-site plant nursery produces many of the venue’s specimens — including Portulaca, Hibiscus, Peace Lilies, Mango and Suriname Cherry — and Groundworks plans gardening workshops on propagation, root cutting, re-potting and grafting. The Garden Café, opened in November 2023, offers all-day breakfast, local dishes, seafood and ice cream, encouraging visitors to make Groundworks a full-day outing.
Groundworks highlights its resilience through the COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing role in local employment and education. For bookings and enquiries, residents can call (284) 393-9675 or WhatsApp (284) 346-6358.
Primary source: Welcome