Dave and Dom looking down at the new wildlife area

The contractors have been and gone and our wildlife garden is well underway!

The team from EMEC, helped by lots and lots of volunteers, have shaped the marshland, lined the pond, and built a bridge and paths all around. Dom has noticed that we need to get the railings up soon so it’s safe. It’s still a muddy, soggy mess down there, but in time, as Amelia says, we can “let things grow wild again”.

Robert and Tom are looking forward to planting things up; we have already sown an area with wildflower seeds last autumn, but we want to plant other things too. “I’ve been thinking we need to level the steep bank,” says Robert “so we can put some plants in it”.

But how do we choose our plants? As Thomas puts it, “We are building a home for pollinators, so we want plants that they will like.” Indeed, our honey bees will be moving back into the wildlife garden soon and we want to attract lots of butterflies and do the Big Butterfly Count again, which Jade is very excited for, to see if there are any changes.

Our pond and bog garden will also need planting up this spring, to give the wildlife somewhere to hide and lay their eggs. Plants like reeds are great for wildlife but will need some clearing out when it gets to autumn to keep it from taking over the whole pond! It will be hard work, but Thomas is up for it: “I’d give it a shot!”

Something else to think about, Amelia says, is “somewhere to sit and watch down in the wildlife garden. At the moment when you go down there, you have to just stand and watch”. So volunteers are going to build a new bird hide and some benches. And we are going to decorate them.

To help us know what wildlife we might see when we sit in there, we are going to have information boards with pictures and facts about the animals. We started to research some animals that we might see down there including badgers, voles and robins, bats... David wants to keep watch for Bruce Wayne too!

We will keep you updated with our progress.

The Green Citizens