The 23 participants in this week’s workshop heard all about making your garden more wildlife friendly. Helena Simmons from Ninewells Community Garden talked about habitat, food and water, thinking about providing what wildlife needs for its full lifecycle and the importance of avoiding herbicide and pesticide use. There is even a demo on how to make a bee bowl – a safe water source for bees to drink from, from broken crockery and stones.
Bob Bilson from Strathkinnes Community Garden showcased some of the the meadow flowers growing in Strathkinness, and will be giving more information in a Meadow Making workshop later in the year.
For more information and links to resources on supporting bees and butterflies in you garden go to the Ninewells Gardening for Wildlife Blog.
Additional resources:
- Wildlife Trusts website on Taking Action for Wildlife: https://www.bbowt.org.uk/actions
- Dave Coulson has written a book, the Garden Jungle which covers a number of things you can do to improve your garden for wildlife (you don’t have to buy from here)
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-garden-jungle/dave-goulson/9781784709914 - You can also hear more from Dave Coulson on YouTube talking about native versus non native flowering plants for your garden.
- While you are out looking at how wildlife uses your garden, remember to take 15 minutes to do a big Butterfly count, 17 July – 9th August this year. The butterfly conservation org runs this every year, and uses the information to see how the butterfly population is changing over time.
Our next workshop is on tackling fruit and veg pests and diseases the natural way and will be presented by Peter Christopher directly from Tayport Community Garden. You may also be interested in an online movie screening and discussion of Inhabit: The Permaculture Perspective. Both are ready for booking on Eventbrite here. Recordings and notes from previous workshops can be found on PLANT website.
This workshop series is an informal collaboration between a number of local community food growers in response to increased demand for growing advice under covid-15 lockdown, including Edible Campus (Transition University St Andrews), Yellow Wellies Garden, Strathkinness Community Garden, Ninewells Community Garden, PLANT’s Tayport Community Garden. We would welcome any other contributors, please get in touch with Kaska on blog@tayportgarden.org.
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