Newsletter February 2022
NEWS
Oxford Real Farming Conference 5th - 7th January 2022
The many sessions from this amazing online 3-day international conference can now be viewed on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/realfarmlife/videos
Recommended viewing
- “Reaching Net Zero with Nature Friendly Solutions” – click here
- “Exploring the soil web through Science and Traditional Knowledge” – click here
- You may like to look at a summary of the ORFC Conference from Resilience.org – click here
Community Tree Nursery
We hope to set up a virtual nursery of locally grown trees. Sam Reed has agreed to coordinate – thank you Sam!! There is a shortage of local trees, so people often bring them in from other parts of the country. Local trees are more likely to have developed resistance to local diseases. They should be rmore resilient to our particular climate and be better able to face the challenges ahead brought by climate change.
If any members of the group (or friends and family) have any trees they have grown and potted up, or excess saplings/suckers that they would like to re-home, we will collect this information onto a database to be available to members and the local community.
More details to follow in a separate email once we have finalised how this will work.
January Monthly Sunday Lunch
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We were blessed with sunshine for another great outdoor gathering, this time at Roaring Stile, the home of Maggie and Sam Freegard. Eleven of us talked together over hot soup and shared food, and several brilliant ideas were raised and discussed, which we hope will come to fruition. This monthly lunch is a good idea in itself - getting to know each other, may be seeing a patch of land and how it’s managed, and chewing things over. Let’s keep it going! |
FUTURE EVENTS |
Monthly Sunday Lunch
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Soup will be provided and bring a plate of food to share. Bring your own cup, bowl, plate and cutlery. Be prepared to gather outside! To confirm a place and request directions please contact Lizzie on LizzyGibson@hotmail.co.uk or phone 01326 554344 |
Tree Planting· Friday 28th January and/or Wednesday 2nd February, any time between 10.00 and 2.00pm Crowgey Farm near Ruan Minor TR12 7NA Planting a new copse/shelter belt with oak, birch, rowan and hawthorn. Please contact Jan Hobbs on jn_hobbs@hotmail.com if you intend to come. The saplings are plugs and turf has already been turned for planting, so bring a trowel if you have one and your own refreshments. The planting site is adjacent to a footpath so people will be able to see them grow!
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Apple Tree Grafting Workshop Saturday 26th February 10.30am-1.00pm. |
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With Simon Miles of The Forest Garden, Budock Water TR11 5ED. |
AGM Tuesday, March 8th 6.00pmTrewoon Farm, St Martin, TR12 6DT All invited. Please consider whether you would like to put your name forward for the committee. |
COMMUNITY MESSAGEBOARD |
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You can use this newsletter to tell readers about what you are doing to help Nature. Is it something we can come and see, help with, and learn from? Would you like to write an article? We can find local willing hands to help you withTree Planting and other wildlife creation projects. Contact us - wildlifegroundswell@gmail.com Community Litter Picking |
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Thanks to Carol Hurst for offering to help us clear up local litter spots of concern. Carol will loan litter picking tools. Wear strong gloves and footwear, and high visibility clothing.
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Wildlife Groundswell Booklist |
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Please forward reviews of books related to Management of Land for Wildlife to wildlifegroundswell@gmail.com. Sally Bowers has a keen interest in fungi. We hope she will talk to us later in the year, but meanwhile she recommends the following books. |
Next Newsletter… |
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Any contributions for March newsletter most welcome, send by 25th February wildlifegroundswell@gmail.com |
Thoughts of an Amateur Gardener – Christine Cartwright January 24th 2022
Hi Wildlife Groundswell friends and neighbours,
First of all I want to say how happy I am to have met fellow WG’s at Maggie’s Sunday lunch last week. What an easy and enjoyable way to swap ideas and get advice and information to help in our quest to help and encourage wildlife on the Lizard. Thank you Maggie for hosting the event. I met some lovely people. Not least Diana and Carey who are virtually my next door neighbours albeit 2miles away!
Maggie has asked me to recommend a gardening book which encourages wildlife to
gardens. But I rely on articles, friends, family and Google for advice these days. I’m a fan of Alan Titchmarsh and his vision of a garden has changed from one of a sculptured pretty garden to the inclusion of setting out areas to encourage wildlife. He encourages leaving areas wild, leaving the mower in the shed, leaving fallen leaves alone and creating piles of old wood. Just keeping areas messy basically. He suggests that when planting vegetables you should allow to lose a third from failed cultivation and a third as food for wildlife which leaves a third for your table. How gardening has changed.
Music to my ears and as I’m well over 35 years old now I thought I’ll go along with Alan for a spell.
Since lockdown I have cut the grass in my orchard less often but still kept it quite long. I have wild areas in corners and under non-fruit trees which haven’t seen my secateurs or heard my footsteps for ages. I laugh at piles of fallen leaves. And nettles. My pond area next to a small stream is mainly left untouched - I really ought to check it out.
So, all last summer I had nightly visits from 3 deer. Apart from donating the first apples to Flicker Donkey Sanctuary I left the fallen apples on the ground. The last apple disappeared just before Christmas. The number of butterflies greatly increased. I have a few fat pheasant friends who come up for their breakfasts and a roving fox! Gulp! I’ve spotted blackbirds nesting in a pile of ‘garden rubbish’ and the number of birds visiting the bird table has increased. I’ve seen my first slow worm outside my door. So with all this going on and also spotting swooping buzzards through the orchard, listening to constant bird song and witnessing a small murmuration from my kitchen window in the evenings, I think it’s not bad for someone living on a 60mph road.
Now, friends, I am a very amateur gardener and I know I could do more but the joy I have felt hoping that I have maybe done something at least to create a better environment for some of our local wildlife is wonderful. Isn’t that what Wildlife Groundswell all about?
Thanks for listening..... Chris x