The Wildlife Garden at the Egleton Visitor Centre
By Fran Payne (Assistant Warden)
If you have visited the Egleton Nature Reserve lately you may have noticed a few changes to the area near the visitor centre. We are finally creating a wildlife garden. Betty Hunt, one of our regular indoor volunteers, produced the plans for the garden about three years ago, hoping to encourage visitors to create wildlife areas within their own gardens, but developments were put on hold due to lack of funds. (Click here to see Betty's drawings). However, at the beginning of this year I successfully applied for a grant to help fund the wildlife garden at the Nature Reserve.
The money has come from a funding programme called GreenPrints. GreenPrints is managed as a partnership involving SITA Trust and "v"(see www.vinspired.com), BTCV and the Wildlife Trusts who provide the practical project support. Projects can apply for up to £10,000 if they generate and support volunteering opportunities that involve young people (aged 16-25) and also benefit the environment and local community.
Work began on the 21st of May 2008. The JCB came on site to start clearing the nettle patches that were to be made into wildflower beds. Over two days, the main area near the Tree Sparrow hide was transformed...
...from this…
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...to this!
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The limestone path will provide easy access for all, so everyone will be able to enjoy the wildlife garden. Within this area, native berry-producing shrubs will be planted along with a bird plug mix to provide food for feeding wild birds.
Once the limestone path had been laid, the wacker plate had to be in constant use to get a smooth, flat surface.
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The JCB didn’t do all the hard work……
…… measuring also had to be done……
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The JCB also dug a ditch for footings for the wall that is going to be built along side the education wing.
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This flower bed is going to be planted with ferns and other shade-loving plants as well as honeysuckle which will be encouraged to climb up the side of the building.
The ditch was filled with concrete……this was allowed to set………..
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The following week, the materials arrived to mix the mortar and build the retaining wall.
With the help of a small mixer (and Heidi filling it!), a bit of man power...and girl power (!)...
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...construction of the wall began…
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…and was soon completed!
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The bed behind the concrete wall was filled with soil that was used to cover the top of the concrete blocks. The wall will then be faced with a limestone dry stonewall.
The top dressing was put on the limestone path so the wacker plate was back in action to compact the stone as much as possible. The path will later be edged with logs to discourage people from straying onto the planted areas.
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On the 2nd of July, the construction of the drystone wall began under the guidance of Martyn Aspinall, Senior Warden and self confessed expert!
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Some of the stone needed cutting to size, so Simon put into practice his new-found stone-shaping skills!
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Once the wall had been constructed…a small amount of art, effort and wet weather led to…
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…the completion of the walled fern garden!
Large pieces of rotting wood will provide excellent habitat for many invertebrates as will the wall itself. What’s more, Pied Wagtails quite like a drystone wall to nest in so who knows what next spring will bring?
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On Wednesday the 25th June a hard-working group of school children and their teachers came to help create the Wildlife Garden. With the help of Martyn Aspinall and Betty Hunt the children were soon planting the spring and summer plugs in one area and the scented and butterfly plugs in the other bed. Thank you to the Ketton Green Team and to three of our volunteers Stella and Yvette for helping plant, and David Cole for the action shots!
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What was next I hear you ask! The next stage of the Wildlife Garden was to construst the shelter. This will enable visitors to sit and enjoy the wild flowers, insects and birds.
One rainy Thursday, under the watchful eye of expert hide builder David Cole, Emma and Yvette put their carpentry skills to the test…
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……and it paid off! The foundations for the shelter were dug by Emma and Tony…
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……and the construction was put in place. The next step was the roof.
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This required careful measuring…
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….and a bit of balancing on the ladder from Trevor under the watchful eye of Richard!
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The new shelter is going to be linked to the existing Tree Sparrow hide enabling people to enjoy both wildlife areas and improving the approach to the visitor centre. A few more finishing touches and a days planting and the new Wildlife Garden will be complete.
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If anyone is interested in helping finish the Wildlife Garden please get in touch. Any school children at a loose end during the long summer holidays or wanting to carry out some practical work towards their Duke or Edinborough Award will be especially welcome.
I am hoping to organise a days shrub- and plug-planting so keep an eye on the website for more information.
Fran Payne (Assistant Warden)
