"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
Although they are asking people in Worcestershire to do this, I thought, what a brilliant idea - and so I wanted to let everyone know about it in the hope more people would follow suit wherever they are and pledge a patch for wildlife!
The Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is celebrating its 50th birthday and it now has 75+ nature reserves across Worcestershire. They describe them as "stepping stones in the landscape" - I love that description. And they are asking people to join the dogs so that wildlife can move through safely.
Wildlife all over the world need wildlife corridors to help them move from one place to another and these are vital to help them reach everything they need to survive and thrive.
Ideas of how you can pledge a patch are... (and no, you don't need a garden)...
Fill a window box with nectar and pollen rich plants
Attach a bug box to the wall of your house
Leave a 1m by 1m square of grass longer so that daisies can grow for the bees
Put up a nest box for birds
Plant a pollinator patch in an area of land - businesses could easily do that
Bring your neighbours together and ensure that hedgehogs can get from one garden to another easily
Join up with locals to turn an unused patch of land into an areas for butterflies
Create a small pond for frogs and toads
Offer to manage a local verge and fill it with wild flowers - just sow wildflowers around it and don't mow it so often
So there's plenty everyone can do wherever you are. 80 peole have already signed up to the Pledge a Patch initiative and you can find out more from their website here.
The RSPB have just joined forces with Barrett Homes. They apparently are looking to create developments and green spaces that’s friendly to nature.
Give them a home, and they will come - as the RSPB advert says
There's no doubt in my mind that having wildlife in a garden give the place far more colour and life. There's nothing like watching the birds from a corner of the garden take a splash in a bird bath, or feast on the food you've put out for them - or to discover a hedgehog, or watch butterflies flutter from one group of flowers to another. Honestly, it's like having your own nature show.
60% of the species which have been monitored in the UK in the last 50 years are declining. And yet, private gardens in the UK cover about 450,000 hectares of land – an area larger than Suffolk.
So the potential to create fantastic places for wildlife is huge. And they don’t need a lot of room, as Butterfly Conservation’s Pot for Pollinators shows – you just need a pot with a butterfly friendly plant stuck in it and anyone can put that on a patio or balcony.
Anyway, back to the RSPB and Barrett Homes.
They’ve created some advice to help you get started giving nature a home in your garden.
The guide has basic steps on how to make your garden wildlife friendly, garden features that will help you make the most of any size garden (so there’ s no need to have a garden the size of Kent to get started), and a full plant guide of what to plant and what not to plant.
It’s National Gardening Week, and this is a great chance to raise awareness of opportunities to get gardening!
Did you know that there are a number of different gardening campaigns to get people gardening?
A couple of my favourite are from the RHS, that’s the Royal Horticultural Society – Britain’s main gardening charity. The RHS is known for its world famous RHS flower shows such as RHS Chelsea, RHS Hampton Court and RHS Tatton Park; and also for campaigns such as Britain in Bloom which helps build local communities.
But there’s also a couple of others which I think are really important from the RHS and other gardening charities so here there are:
As Britain gets more and more concrete, and there’s more and more building, so it’s really important to look after and create new green spaces. Gardens are crucial, and they are also an essential way to help wildlife. Wildlife are losing more and more habitat to human activity. What’s more, the more land we concrete over, the more risk at flooding we are and the more we damage the environment and our health.
So the RHS is running a campaign to encourage people to get Greening Grey Britain. You could for example:
Plant a tree
Plant a shrub
Plant a flower bed
Plant a window box or a container
Plant a climber
Do something else
The RHS are hoping that 6,000 people will join in this campaign – so far over 2,800 people have done just that.
Wild About Gardens is a joint initiative by the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts to get more people growing for wildlife. This year, the theme is Go Wild For Worms – they are essential to life and a gardener’s best friend. They are also essential food for wildlife.
Young people are clearly the gardeners of tomorrow but more importantly I think they are going to be the guardians of our planet. Frankly, and this is just a personal view, I hope they do a better job of it than my generation have done.
The RHS Campaign for School Gardening inspires and supports schools to give children with gardening opportunities to enhance their skills and boost their development. Children love gardening and it does them so much good.
The RHS is looking to tackle the crisis in the horticultural industry in the UK which is suffering from a growing skills crisis. It’s working to improve the perception of careers in the sector, to support schools in the delivery of horticultural qualifications and to work with the Government to secure funding for plant-science research.
Over 2,000 community groups participate in this gardening campaign – caring for parks, greening street corners, revamping alleyways and basically creating greener, safer places for everyone to live with a fresh community spirit.
Just Add Water is a national campaign to encourage the public to dig wildlife ponds, especially in urban environments. There's been a huge loss of countryside ponds in recent years so hopefully this will help local frogs and newts and other wildlife to survive and thrive. Efforts locally can make a big difference and Froglife have created the Just Add Water campaign to help give advice and tips.
This year, the theme of this annual event is to encourage gardeners to share their love of gardening, so I thought I’d share with you why I love it.
There’s an awful lot that’s been written about the physical and mental benefits of gardening, so I thought I would tell you why I find it beneficial and why I love it. I know gardening does me good. I love being out there, digging, weeding, planting, planning, watering – it gives me a peace and it’s doing nature good at the same time.
So here are the benefits I’ve enjoyed from my love of gardens and gardening…
Gardening and a love of gardens helps you connect to people. Give me a garden centre over a shopping centre any day. At a garden centre, you can swiftly get chatting and comparing notes over the cucumber plants or the rose bushes. You can compare failures, successes, things that have worked for you, things that haven’t worked for you.
You don’t have to travel anywhere to get what you need for your garden. You can just do everything from home. There’s an enormous number of online retailers who will happily deliver to you - though of course there are delivery costs.
You can get lost in a new world with gardening magazines which give me great joy – there’s nothing like leafing through pages of a magazine and jotting down ideas of things to try. You don’t need acres and acres of garden, either. A few square feet will do.
You can enjoy the pleasure of watching things you’ve planted grow. I’ve stuck in a blueberry bush – it’s a dwarf one and it’s gone into a pot. It’s started to flower and I’m looking forward to tucking into the blueberries. (To be honest, I’m amazed when anything I plant grows…. I’m a “plant and hope they come up” gardener.)
Grow your own fruit and veg and salads, and you’ll have food you can enjoy from home – and there’s nothing like it! My grandfather in Wales used to do this and I loved the mint from his garden, the peas, the potatoes etc. My little sister and I spent many a happy hour with him outside, “helping”, and it was a great way to do something together
You can enjoy the winter months planning for next year – looking through pictures of beautiful gardens can lift the spirits. Even in the depths of winter, you know spring is on the way and you can look out for signs – the first primrose, a bluebell, a daffodil, a snowdrop…(not necessarily in that order). You can plan to try out different things and move plants, pots, and so on around. If it doesn’t work in one spot, it may work in another.
Bring your garden indoors with house plants! Plus you can enjoy lots of things with a garden theme to cheer up a home – pictures, mugs, household items – check out Emma Bridgewater who has an amazing range of mugs with a garden theme for the home.
It’s a great way to work off frustration and stress. Plants and flowers are gentle – they don’t argue back (unless you’re trying to pull them out of the ground and they’ve been there a long time)…..
You can create your own wildlife haven – and then sit back and enjoy watching the birds, butterflies, bees, and more visit and tuck in! You could end up with your own nature show!
You can really get into it as an interest, going on courses, reading books and magazines, attending gardening shows and events. You can get as involved as you want.
I feel refreshed from being in the garden – tired, yes, of course sometimes. But I feel refreshed and as though I’ve had a real break from the digital world, the TV etc.
I love to take a mug of hot coffee out, and indulge in it while I’m gardening; and because I’m burning calories (more than I would be if I were sitting down watching TV), that slice of cake tastes all the better afterwards – it’s well deserved!
Gardening can bring people together as can be seen through campaigns such as Britain in Bloom, run by the RHS; who are also running a campaign Greening Grey Britain in the RHS is trying to turn Britain from being in grey concrete to green grass and flowers, plants and trees.
You can enliven your senses with the result – every sense can enjoy the garden, from the sights of birds enjoying a bird bath, the sound of buzzing bees, the taste of the food you’ve grown, the feel of different sorts of leaves, the scent of flowers. It makes you feel alive.
Garden gift vouchers. They are fantastic gifts for anyone who loves their gardens. It’s another excuse to trot off to the garden centre and have a pleasant few hours browsing, contemplating, chatting (see no 1 above), enjoying the café if there is one, and shopping.
My garden makes me feel happy. Gardening makes me feel happy. I love listening to and watching the wildlife because it’s their home too.
You don’t need a large space to help wildlife. In fact, you don’t need a garden at all. You can get window feeders for the birds.
You can indulge in bird watching and identifying – there are lots of resources available and online to help you. Get the children involved – they love wildlife and it gives them a great feel good factor to know which bird is which.
Last year, I made it my goal to turn my garden into a wildlife friendly one. Now, if it isn’t wildlife friendly, it doesn’t go in. And the results are starting to show. And that makes me feel very happy as well. And the feel good factor I have really lasts. I feel joy in my heart every time I think of it!
So there you are. My 20 reasons why I love gardening and being in the garden. I haven’t even touched on the physical and mental benefits of it yet!
It’s an amazing project. Butterfly Conservation are asking people to plant a pot or pots for pollinators – butterflies and bees.
Butterfly Conservation says the UK has 1,500 pollinating species – bumblebees, honeybees, hoverflies, beetles, wasps, butterflies and moths. Changes in land use and the way it’s managed are destroying vital wildlife habitat on farms, woodlands, towns and cities. We need to look after our pollinators.
Over 80% of EU crops and 80% of wildlflowers need insect pollination. Pollinators can only look after us, if we look after them. And if we provide habitat for them, they will come. The sight of colourful butterflies fluttering around your garden thanks to your efforts is a truly lovely one. There’s something very relaxing about listening to bees buzzing around flowers.
So the more plants we pot and grow for our pollinators, the better.
There’s a planting guide with suggestions of what butterflies like
The Plant Pots for Pollinators scheme is sponsored by B&Q, so watch for Butterfly Conservation events at some B&Q stores.
