Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 25 January 2010
On The
list of hopes for 2009 was pretty long. I remember thinking at the time
“We’ll never get all that done!” So I was surprised when re-reading
that list to find that most of our plans were achieved. Back to school Of
all the projects we have started since Little Green Space was launched,
some of the most satisfying have been those with local schools. Our
biggest school project has been helping to redesign the garden at Matlock
All Saints Infants’ School. A new outdoor area was created, including
habitats for lots of different creatures, wildlife-friendly planting
(which quickly became a magnet for bees, butterflies and birds) and a
wonderful wildlife-themed seat created by Wirksworth-based wood sculptor
Andrew Frost. Meanwhile,
our friends Rob and Margaret from Transition Matlock got involved and
coordinated the creation of a kitchen garden area, including raised beds
and compost bins. Parents and staff gave up a lot of spare time to do a
lot of digging and to help build the raised beds, which will be used by
the pupils. The
children at the school formed a new gardening club – and are now
religiously composting the peels and cores from their playtime fruit. And
hopefully, in years to come, children will be able to enjoy fruit picked
fresh from the fruit trees we planted in the garden. All
that hard work was recognized in the autumn when the garden won third
prize in the schools category of the Matlock in Bloom awards. Tremendous trees Trees
seemed to feature strongly during 2009. In fact there were times during
March and April when all we seemed to do in our spare time was plant
trees! First
there was planting up at Starkholmes, where Matlock Town Councillor Martin
Burfoot started a project to create a native woodland on land belonging to
Willersley Castle Hotel. Next,
we needed a home for over 1500 ash saplings salvaged from the digging
sessions at All Saints Infants. The
Cavendish Fields committee agreed for us to plant the trees at Cavendish
Playing Fields in Matlock, where they will eventually provide a much
needed wind-break for the football pitches. Transition Matlock members
rallied round to get the trees planted in a couple of weekends. More
fruit trees went in at Closer
to home, we planted 150 hedging trees around the chicken enclosure, with
the help of our friend Alison. When fully grown, the hedge will be a
fantastic habitat, providing nesting sites for birds. And the fruits found
on hedging plants such as hawthorn and blackthorn are a useful food source
for wildlife during autumn and winter. Tree O’Clock The
year ended with tree planting, too. On 5 December we joined thousands of
others to plant as many native British trees as possible during a one hour
period. It was hoped that the Tree O’Clock event, coordinated by BBC
Breathing Spaces, would break the world record for the biggest number of
trees planted simultaneously: the previous record is 653,143. It is
estimated that around 500,000 trees were planted in the Our
little team of ten planted 59 trees: mostly ash and oak. Trees make great
habitats for all kinds of wildlife, as well as soaking up carbon dioxide.
In fact, trees are tremendous – and it’s heart-warming to think that
the trees we planted will still be there in over a hundred years. Of
course tree planting is only possible on well-prepared land. The area
where we wanted to plant the trees had been covered with overgrown bramble
bushes, so there was an awful lot of preparation involved. We
favoured the Hard Slog method of bramble clearance. Keen to avoid any use
of chemicals (which would then render the land unplantable for some time,
anyway) we cut the brambles with a brushcutter then dug out each plant by
hand. Sustainable energy One
of the benefits of planting lots of trees is that they are a fantastic
source of sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel. Ash, for example, is one of
the best firewoods available, and ash trees benefit from being coppiced. Our
new Clearview stove worked hard during the cold snaps of February and
December, and as the stove also heats our hot water our gas bills have
reduced dramatically. We also installed solar panels in the summer, which
provide us with all the hot water we need during the summer. The
money we save on bills should repay the financial outlay within a few
years – especially if energy prices start to soar, as some have
predicted. New Year’s
Resolutions Well,
that’s some of the things that we have got up to in 2009. As I write
this, it’s New Year’s Eve. Here I am sitting at the computer again,
thinking about what we’d like to achieve in 2010. We have lots of ideas
but our New Year’s Resolution is pretty simple. By
logging onto www.1010uk.org I will
find a list of simple actions that I can take to reduce my family’s
carbon footprint by 10 per cent in 2010. Many of the actions will save
money and improve our quality of life. By working our way through the
online checklist, we will be joining thousands of others all actively
helping to tackle climate change by making a few easy lifestyle changes. Maybe
you could try the Penny at Little Green
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