For such a long time the group has only been able to gather virtually but, at least through the winter months, it’s meant that storms, floods and icy roads have not stopped us meeting! So, we’re now ready to run our first market stall at Leek’s Saturday market, to support climate-friendly gardening, once Covid lets us; our questionnaire to local garden centres and nurseries is ready and we’ve set up a peat-free challenge, so that we can share our experiences of different peat-free composts. We’re continuing to build contacts with local conservation organisations, plus the wonderful Gift Garden run in Leek and, of course, send representatives to meetings with local councillors.
As soon as Covid restrictions are lifted enough for us to get a date for our first market stall, we’ll let you know so you’ll be able to pick up green manure seeds to look after your soil and make lovely, climate-friendly beds for growing your fruit and veg; take a look (and a feel) at a variety of peat free composts (small sample bags will be available); pick up a free, bee-friendly plant, and find out more about Moorlands Climate Action.
We’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s of a questionnaire for our local garden centres and nurseries, to find out how they can help us create climate-friendly gardens: including what peat-free composts they have; whether they are using pesticides and if their plants are grown in the UK. We look forward to sharing whatever we find out, so you’ll know the best places to go to for help to make your garden a climate-friendly, nature haven.
Just last month, one of the biggest peat extraction companies (Bord na Móna) announced they have completely stopped all extraction! This is great news and, partly because of this and the increased understanding of leaving peat in the ground to stop climate change, we hope to see a lot less peat-based compost being offered very soon. However, there are big differences between the peat-free composts and it can be quite hard choosing which one to use; some people still need persuading that peat-free composts are any good at all! So, we’re asking you to help us find out which peat-free composts are our favourites, via our Peat-free Challenge. We can then ask our garden centres to stock the composts that we want.
We’re also continuing to find out about the organisations offering practical environmental volunteering opportunities. We’re starting to put these organisations’ information on our website, so when Covid allows us to get out and about again, you’ll be able to follow the links to a variety of opportunities. We’re also looking at the possibility of visits to climate-friendly gardens, including Ruby Sufi’s Gift Garden.
How Does the Nature Group grow?
With the first hints of spring in the air, we’re exploring how the Nature group can grow over the coming year and beyond. We’ve already got some great suggestions from our members:
Community allotments / growing spaces, where we can share knowledge, gain skills, and of course, grow delicious fruit and vegetables. For some inspirational reading, take a look at Stoke on Trent’s Root ‘n’ Fruit, Todmorden’s Incredible Edible or the RHS’s great start up guide.
Community nature reserves – creating a network of small green spaces throughout the Moorlands that are beneficial to wildlife and, yes, that could be in your garden or a patch in your local park. For more information about community nature reserves, you can read about a brilliant one, Little Green Space, that’s already been started.
Community tree planting – SMDC are already planting new orchards around in the district, so look out for one popping up near you. Is this something the Nature group can join in or do we look at other community-focused tree planting? Common Ground and the National Trust have some interesting ideas.
Adopting verges to make amazing wildlife corridors – we’ve already identified an unloved stretch of verge, which we could adopt to get the ball rolling, but maybe establishing biodiverse verges is something we could help communities do throughout the Moorlands?
At present none of these ideas are priorities. We’ll be talking through the possibilities in our next meeting, so come along, get involved and help us grow!