Exciting news just in: the next order of plants for the nature garden is on its
way (from Bampton, west of Oxford – we keep it local if we can). This time
it’s a bumper batch of more than 400 perennials, including honeysuckle,
foxgloves, ferns, yarrow, bugloss and meadow crane’s bill.
We’d really appreciate your help getting these lovelies safely stowed in the
soil. You can volunteer on Saturday March 12 and Sunday March 11 from 10
am.
This is the last big push (can you tell I’ve been watching This is going to
hurt) to get the greenery in the garden established, coupled with
wildflower seed-sowing next month.
After that there’s a new gate and a sign to install, and the garden will be
ready to receive visitors! Obviously it’ll take a while for the plants to get
established, but there are already bulbs poking through and buds on the
hedging plants.
Another welcome sighting earlier this month was a mistle thrush chortling in
the chestnut. I’m told one of its nicknames is the ‘stormcock’ because it
starts trying to pair up before winter is properly over. It’s on the British
Trust for Ornithology’s red list of birds of conservation concern, so let’s
hope it finds the food and habitat it needs locally.
Verging on the meticulous
Cutting verges costs a lot of money and turns a potentially productive strip
of land into a desert, albeit a green one.
In recognition of this, miniature roadside nature reserves have been
springing up all over the country, including about a dozen across
Oxfordshire. Have you spotted one? They’re a great way to support
pollinator populations and cut down on the bills we have to pay through our
council tax.
Now our county councillor, Sally Povolotsky, is working to make it easier to
arrange for verge-mowing operations to be suspended, and for local groups
to manage the land in a more sustainable way. Chilton Road is a good
candidate for this in our area. Turning the verge (on the left as you go up
the hill) into a bank of flowers and longer grasses would be relatively
straightforward and safe to do as there’s no longer traffic there.
We’d need to wait until the road closure works are complete before starting
work, but if there’s support for the idea then at least we could kick off a
discussion. If you’re interested in getting involved please let me know at
kieronhumph@gmail.com
Kieron

Upton Nature Garden Volunteers.
Not too many people will be shedding a tear for the end of 2021, I suspect,
but what a year for nature in Upton! We received funding for the nature
garden, broke ground in September and planted bulbs in October with the
help of loads of village volunteers. Meanwhile in the overflow cemetery we
sowed wildflowers and a flying squad from a local firm planted a 90 metre
hedge in the middle of a gale.
What does this add up to? Well, it depends what you want to measure.
According to long-standing convention, economic growth is the only scale
worth paying attention to. If it doesn’t increase GDP, it isn’t worth the
candle. But this is to ignore all the soft benefits that an activity brings – and
any harmful collateral. Quick example: going for a walk generates no
revenue, no margin, but it contributes to the walker’s health and maybe
their happiness, without causing any pollution – as long as they didn’t drop
any litter while they were out.
Let’s take a closer look at the balance sheet for the environmental projects
in Upton:
Plants and materials provided a bit of income for suppliers, but the labour
was all about love, not money, so economically there’s not much to report.
When it comes to environmental impact the calculations get interesting.
Initially there are carbon emissions from transport of goods and people to
consider. But over the course of the, say minimum 30 years we’d expect the
hedges, shrubs and trees to grow, the capture rate (according to experts at
https://ecotree.green) averages at 25kg of carbon a year. That’s the
equivalent of the emissions a new car produces over a distance of 125 miles
(www.nimblefins.co.uk for the calculation). And since we’ll have put in
more than 600 trees when everything’s planted, we’ll be safely in the black.
Then there’s the direct contribution to nature: food and habitat for
creatures that wouldn’t otherwise have had the necessary. With the
potential to harbour thousands of species, a single hedge is a pretty
phenomenal ecosystem. Adding one means a net gain for nature – and
indeed for humans since one of the nature garden’s hedges is edible, with
fruit and berries for jams, jellies and syrups if you’re that way inclined.
And what about the contribution to community? Gathering people with a
common purpose is definitely valuable, although I’m not sure what metric
you’d use. And finally the business of enjoying the end result: bud-burst or
birdsong or butterfly-flight. Again, hard to quantify. And maybe that’s the
point. If the uncountable stuff – birdsong or bud-burst or bumblebee drone –
disappears one day, it won’t affect the economy, but it will affect all of us.
Kieron Humphrey kieronhumph@gmail.com

We’re thrilled to report exciting and momentous progress towards supporting nature in our village. This weekend just past, villagers and other volunteers have planted 2500 bulbs and laid out the paths in the nature garden. This means that next spring there’ll be nectar for the early emerging bees – generally queen bumbles looking for food so they can build strength to find a nesting site – and a way to walk around the garden to get a look at the flowers and who they’re feeding.

So thank you to everyone who took part (all the more so if you stayed when it rained) from the toddlers to the elders, from the experts to the newbies, from the diehards to the sceptics – you made it a great community gathering and set the bar high for future volunteer events.

As it happens, our volunteer weekend was also the start of CO26 in Glasgow. Basically the last ditch attempt by the international community to arrest climate change. It’s worth noting that as the deliberations kicked off we were planting up a green space that will absorb carbon as well as providing other benefits.

Hedging our bets

Even though I’ve been devouring ‘A natural history of the hedgerow’ by John Wright, I still haven’t fathomed why we say “hedging our bets”. Is it to do with steeplechasing? Or investing in land? Please advise. What I do know is the next stage of the nature garden involves planting hedges.

Small at first, these unprepossessing stalks will develop into beautiful berry-laden, species-rammed, carbon-digesting chambers of greenfulness. Hedges, amazingly, can host thousands of species of plant, animal, lichen and fungus, and while we may not see them all, they all contribute to the ecosystem. It’ll be a while before we get to serious levels of biodiversity, but the main thing is to get started.

We’ll be planting wildlife-targeted hedge plants along the fence adjoining Station Road, and across the garden near the seating area. These hedges will provide habitat for pollinators and birds. The border with the rec stretching from the village hall to the fence adjoining Beeching Close will be planted with ‘edible’ hedging – plants bearing berries and fruits which can be used for jams, syrups, and other home uses, which was a recommendation from County Councillor Sally Povolotsky who generously allocated funding to the garden.

To get these hedges planted, along with shrubs for the woodland area, we really need your help (again!) later this month. We don’t know dates yet because we have to wait for the supplier to say when they can deliver. But if you’re willing and able when the time comes, please don’t be shy.

Upton Nature Garden Volunteers

Over the weekend of 25-26th September we started the landscaping work on the nature garden site. The grass was removed to leave earth for the woodland shrubs, perennials, and native ground cover. The massive concrete foundations from the old playground equipment were dug up and removed from site. Smaller hardcore has been retained to form the base for the seating area and some paths. Some of the rubber matting from the slide area was also re-purposed as path base.

There are two sets of trenches where hedges will be planted. One hedge is between the meadow (bus stop) end and the seating area, and the other is the new boundary behind the village hall. NB there will be a gate in the hedge there too, even though the trench is continuous for now. The big pile of wood chippings next to the nature garden site will be used as toppings for the paths through the woodland area

So, what is the plan?

The Upton Nature Garden project aims to create a haven for wildlife and people that is a focal point for community activities involving biodiversity and the environment. Walk through the woodland glades; spot insects, fungi, flowers, birds and the tracks of small animals. Sit and relax whilst youngsters try out the log trail and babies enjoy the flickering sunlight through the leaves and branches. Enjoy the wildflower meadow spectacle in summer.

Inside the nature garden site, we already have

Mature copper beech, horse chestnut and field maple

Well shaded bank with hazel, willow and hedgerow beech

An area that has been dog excrement free for many years

Oxfordshire Conservation Charity recommended we plant blossom and berry bearing bushes, shrubs, and wildflowers; that we renovate the hedge along the roadside; and that we include boundary hedges that have edible fruit for birds (and people) to eat.

The final garden design has three areas that wrap around the village hall.

(1) In the Forest Sub-Canopy there are native shrubs and woodland bulbs around the perimeter, and perennials and ground cover over a mound in the centre. The winding paths and log trail loop around the trees, and log piles and dead hedges return nutrients and encourage fungi, bugs, and insects.

(2) The Open Glade, where the slide used to be, is bounded by new native hedge for seclusion. Part of the existing concrete base has been re-used for the seating area, which is surrounded by flowers and berry bearing shrubs. There will be shallow rooted plants near the hall and two clusters of fruit trees between the seats and the road.

(3) In the sunniest part of the garden nearest the bus stop, in the Meadow, there are wide mown paths for pushchair and wheelchair access, and a wide variety of meadow flowers to support pollinators like queen bumblebees who need that early nectar for the energy to find a nest site.

The garden will develop over the next few years and increase in interest as the plants grow and the wildlife moves in. There are information posters about the planned work schedule and design pinned to the boundary fences. More information and pictures on nature-garden.co.uk

Exciting finds on the nature garden site next to the village hall last month: a pyramidal orchid, several field voles, and a slow worm!
We’re aiming to prepare the ground in September ahead of planting in October and November.
We haven’t been given the final grant figure for the garden by Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment yet, but we know there’s going to be a shortfall in the amount of funding we receive for shrubs and plants. So we need your help! Could you donate any of the following native species:
Foxgloves (digitalis purpurea); honeysuckle (lonicera periclymen); ivy (hedera helix); sweet briar rose (rosa rubignosa); wild privet (ligustrum vulgare); spurge laurel (daphne laureola); guelder rose (viburnum opulus); spindle (euonymus europaeus); barberry (berberis); juniper (juniperus communis); dogwood (cornus sanguinea); holly (ilex aquifolium).
We’d prefer smaller plants – ones grown from cuttings or seeds of your own stock would be ideal – because these can adapt and establish themselves to the conditions in the nature garden more easily than mature plants.
We’d also like your logs or stumps to provide high-spec homes for insect families. If you’re planning to fell a tree, please call Brian or Kieron, or email us at support@nature-garden.co.uk
Kieron

Thanks to everyone who’s shown enthusiasm for the plan to create a wildlife-friendly space beside the village hall. We’re delighted that Upton Parish Council has formally approved the nature garden project.

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