June 2023 News
On 1st June some of the WEN Trustees and team joined a relaunch event for Wirral Tree Wardens in the walled garden at Dibbinsdale to encourage new members to join and share ideas for the group. Sam Village from The Tree Council was in attendance to help make plans for the future of the Wirral Tree Wardens. There was also a special cake to thank David Ellwand, who has stepped down from his role as Co-ordinator of Wirral Tree Wardens.
If you would like to join the Wirral Tree Wardens, please email Steve Yandell on steve.yandell@talktalk.net
The relaunch meeting of the Wirral Tree Wardens
A cake to thank David Ellwand, retiring co-ordinator of the Wirral Tree Wardens
On 3rd June we visited Wirral MakeFest, which took place at Birkenhead Library and the Williamson Art Gallery. Makers for the event were chosen on the basis that they encouraged or used sustainable practices. Stallholders at the event included Wirral Repair Cafe, Make. Hamilton Square with herbs grown in their garden and Faiths4Change who were planting in the library garden.
Wirral Repair Cafe volunteers at Wirral MakeFest
Faiths4Change planting in the garden at Birkenhead library during Wirral MakeFest
As part of Wirral MakeFest, Ignite Liverpool ran a series of 5 minute talks addressing sustainability in Wirral over the next 30 years. Kenny, a Sustainability Project Manager at WEN, spoke about how to encourage food sustainability. Other topics covered were Active Travel, Regeneration and Tourism, and Using Sustainability Creatively.
On 13th June, 60 children from Bidston Avenue Primary School visited St James Community Garden. The children planted containers to take home. With more containers going to Holy Cross Primary School, there are now an extra 100 pots in the area growing flowers for pollinators and food for people!
Plants prepared for the children’s visit to St James Community Garden
Some of the enthusiastic young gardeners from Bidston Avenue Primary School
On 19th June, Carol led two workshops at St Vincent de Paul Society‘s centre in Birkenhead to make plans for their Joey’s Community Garden Project.
During the month, Carol took 3 groups to take part in an Earthwatch Europe Citizen Science project at Citrine Park in Seacombe, where there is a Tiny Forest – 600 trees densely planted on a plot the size of a tennis court, with enriched soil to mimic 200 years of forest leaf litter.
There are two other areas at Citrine Park for comparison:
- 600 trees planted by traditional methods on area the size of a football pitch.
- Trees planted with traditional spacing but with enriched soil and grass initially removed
The results were obvious to see. The Tiny Forest area is doing really well, whereas all but a few trees in the traditional planting sites have died and the ones remaining show little growth compared to Tiny Forest planting.
The groups were fascinated to learn about Tiny Forests and used the downloadable guides from Earthwatch Europe to help them identify and record the different species of insects seen. Everyone was so impressed that they want to visit once a season to record results!
We will be looking at funding to see if we can run a workshop to identify and re-tag the trees in the near future. Please look out for it being advertised on our Facebook or Twitter pages, or sign up to our email newsletter to hear about plans and details of how you can take part.
Read about the Tiny Forest at Citrine Park and take a look at the ID guides and survey instructions:
https://tinyforest.earthwatch.org.uk/tiny-forest-sites/8-tiny-forest/139-citrine-park-wirral
Some of the trees growing in the Tiny Forest at Citrine Park
Learning about the Tiny Forest at Citrine Park
On 29th June, a third set of volunteers from RSA Insurance Group came to WEN to help us refurbish our community garden and environmental hub. Tasks involved rebuilding the Ugandan keyhole garden, weather proofing raised beds, cutting back bushes to make paths safe for walking, clearing areas so that visitors can see the bug hotel, and sorting out pots for classes, visits and events. We are so very grateful and look forward to welcoming more groups to our hub.
The RSA Group volunteers
Volunteers painting the raised beds
We are looking ahead to September already and have announced two new Discover Gardening courses and a crystal workshop.
To book on a gardening course, please phone 07932 355742 or email carol.seery1@btinternet.com
If you would like a place on the crystal workshop, phone Julie on 07540 073731 or email Juliemarshall48@aol.com
Course starts Wednesday 6th September, 12 – 2pm
How to Grow Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs
