September is the start of a new term of courses at WEN, with topics including the history of gardening and how to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs. See the Gardening Course page of our website for details of courses and workshops at WEN and email carol.seery1@btinternet.com to check availability for future terms.

September is also harvest time with grapes, apples and pears all ripe and ready in the garden at Falkland Road! Fruit like this is great for local community gardens, being low maintenance and producing a crop every year.

As well as enjoying the autumn bounty, the gardeners have sown salad crops for harvesting over the winter months. Lots of leafy goodness to look forward to from pepper cress, land cress and common cress, mizuna, lamb’s lettuce, winter purslane or miner’s lettuce, and spinach.

Seacombe grapes!

Salad crops to be harvested in the winter.

Alison fixing one of the Eco Art sculptures

For more information on the artworks, to download the pollinator passport or to book for your event visit the Eco Art in the Park page on our website.

Alison with the full set of artworks, which can be booked for community events

On 16th September we took part in the Wirral Earth Festival at West Kirby. It was a fantastic event and great to connect with people. We talked about carbon footprints and the Big Green List, and matched volunteers to environmental projects and communities across the Wirral.

On 19th September we took a trip to Gillmoss Recycling Discovery Centre and were able to watch the waste for recycling travel along the conveyor belts and through the sorting machinery in the Materials Recovery Facility.

The impressive Materials Recovery Facility

From 12th September we began running weekly activities at the Green Hub at St James Community Garden. Sessions for children take place on Tuesdays, 3.30 – 4.30pm, and for adults on Wednesdays, from 10am – 12 noon.

Weekly activities for all ages at St James Community Garden

Look out for the St James Community Garden sign on Tollemache Road

The first week was about all things apple – apple picking, apple tasting, apple games…

Apples at the community garden

The weather stopped us running a seed safari as planned on the second week but we were able to offer free packets of seeds to residents of Birkenhead North.

We publicised our free seed packet giveaway on our social media pages

We are having a Birkenhead North scarecrow trail and competition in October, with prizes for the best ones but everyone will get a little something for taking part. If you live within a 10 minute walk of St James church, you are invited to make a scarecrow at home, or at school, church or a community group. Then, email wen@la21.net with your name and the location of the scarecrow and we will add you to the trail. Ideally scarecrows should be up for the week of 14th – 21st October for the trail. Scarecrows will need to be up on 18th October when we will be joined by local councillor Liz Grey for a walk around the area and judging of entries to the competition.

Inspiration for the Birkenhead North scarecrow competition

Carol, WEN’s Horticulture specialist, ran a workshop for St Vincent’s Community Garden on 26th September, with a 4 week course to follow in October. The garden is behind The Joey’s in Seacombe and there are plans for adding a polytunnel, composters, water butts and building raised beds.

The course is now fully booked but you can follow St Vincent’s Community Garden on Facebook to find out about getting involved at the garden and any future events and courses.

Our Wirral Fuss donation drum is full again! We will be passing on the school uniforms so that they can be worn again rather than being thrown away. Thank you to all those who have donated. You can find the locations of other donation points and how to request school uniforms on the Wirral Fuss website.

Anne dropping off uniforms for Wirral Fuss (Free UniformS for School).

Evergreen magazine is emailed to all Wirral Environmental Network members. The Summer 2023 issue of Evergreen is now available to read on our website.

There are articles on WEN’s activities, Farmers’ Markets, Tiny Forests, community gardens, Wirral Repair Cafe, Pilgrimage for the Planet, Wirral’s Climate Action Hub and the WEN Annual Survey.

Members of WEN are able to contribute content or advertise in Evergreen. If you are not a member and would like to join WEN, please see our website for online payment options.

You can also print out and complete the membership form on the last page of Evergreen if you would prefer to pay by bank transfer or cheque.