A Cool Communities meeting took place on 1st May, with Naomi representing WEN amongst the other groups who gather each month to share ideas and give feedback to Wirral Council as part of the wider Cool Wirral campaign. The meetings are held at a different venue each time, with this month’s being at New Ferry Butterfly Park. After the meeting, there was time for a tour around the Butterfly Park to see how this former railway goods yard has been transformed into an urban nature reserve supporting varied habitats and species of plants and animals.

Teachers from Wirral’s Eco Schools collecting plants to grow with their pupils

Choosing vegetable and fruit plants to take back to school

Also on 10th May, as part of the Wirral Walking Festival, WEN Trustee Anne led a very interesting walk from Seacombe to Wirral Waters, Citrine Park and WEN, before returning to Seacombe. Anne explained about a number of local enterprises working to provide solutions to global environmental issues. We also met people involved with the projects and businesses along our route.

Read a full report of the walk on our Facebook page.

Citrine Park, showing tree planting, including (top right) the Tiny Forest and (bottom left) a tree planted at the same time as the ones in the Tiny Forest.

Wirral Waters. Photos (clockwise from top right): Miller’s Quay, Hydraulic Tower, a pocket park, planting and sustainable urban drainage near the Hythe building.

We had a sun-filled and fun-filled day at our Spring Fair on 11th May. It was our most successful fair yet thanks to the volunteers and stallholders who gave their time and energy in preparation and on the day, as well as everyone who visited to enjoy the event. We raised funds for WEN by selling plants, handmade items from the Crafters group, cakes, and tickets for the tombola.

Other stallholders at the fair included Julie’s crystals and gemstones, Energy Projects Plus, FairTrade. Meraki Crafts, Rob’s Artwork, Friends of Vale Park, Cool Wirral, Vicky’s Happy Houseplants, Wallasey CND, Jackson’s Animal Rescue, Miss Melon, and Wirral FUSS.

See photos of all the stalls here.

Time to relax at the WEN Spring Fair

The polytunnels and beds at WEN not only provide an important community gardening space, they play an essential role each year in the fundraising success of our fairs. Plants grown in the months leading up to each fair are sold to raise money for WEN, which helps fund our local environmental education projects. If you came to this month’s Spring Fair, you will have seen the impressive range of plants on offer.

After the teachers’ visit and the Spring Fair, we have an empty polytunnel which gives us a blank slate ready to plan for autumn and our next fair.

Flowers being grown in the polytunnel for the Spring Fair

The plant sale at the Spring Fair

Food and household items available at Make it Happen – Birkenhead

Inside Diversity Hub 67 in Seacombe

We took part in Cool Heswall on 18th May, with a selection of plants for sale, and jewellery, cards, knitwear, toys and bags made by the Crafters. This was the 3rd year Cool Heswall has been held at Hill House Gardens. The event is organised by the Joint Rotary Environment Group and is a chance to meet local residents who care about nature and climate change and are involved with projects to make a difference in our area.

You can see photos of the stalls on the Cool Heswall Facebook page.

Plants for sale on the WEN stall at Cool Heswall

All handmade by the WEN Crafters

We took over the gallery in the visitor centre at Birkenhead Park from 28th to 30th May to hold ‘Wirral Cares for Gaia Earth‘, an event to coincide with Luke Jerram’s artwork Gaia being on display in the park as part of Wirral Borough of Culture. We invited lots of local environmental groups to display information about their work so that people who were feeling inspired after looking at Gaia could find out how to get involved in protecting our planet.

Information tables set up in the Visitor Centre at Birkenhead Park

Become a Tree Warden!

Arts organisation Walk the Plank brought spectacular outdoor performances and community engagement to Birkenhead Park over the 3 days of Gaia’s visit. 29th May was Love Your Earth Day when environmental artists and community groups were given a showcase to share their work through demonstrations, drop-in sessions and a marketplace. Most of the groups who were in the gallery also had a stall at the outdoor marketplace (including WEN), plus many more besides. Visitors were entertained by poetry and storytelling, a giant animatronic tortoise, stilt walking flowers, and a pedal powered replica of Stephenson’s Rocket!

Gaia near the grand entrance of Birkenhead Park

The WEN stall at the marketplace on Love Your Earth Day

Look at more photos from Love Your Earth Day on our Facebook page