This week we focus on the brilliant volunteers who keep Flatford Wildlife Garden looking so attractive to both wildlife and the visitors. Behind the scenes, a group of about 12 garden volunteers meets once a week throughout the year. The focus is on nurturing plants that have maximum benefit to wildlife, providing shelter, protection and nutrition to wildlife all year round. Planting, weeding, watering, pruning and many other jobs all need to be carried out to keep the plants in their best possible condition.
As well as maintaining and developing the garden, some of the garden volunteers propagate and sell plants to raise significant and vital funds for the RSPB. A small group of three dedicated volunteers focus on producing plants (chosen for being particularly rich in nectar and pollen) to sell at the visitor centre. These are purchased and enjoyed by hundreds of visitors each year. Bestsellers include foxgloves and erigeron, both of which are magnets for bumblebees and are relatively easy to grow.
Many of the plants on sale are grown from seeds collected from plants already growing in the garden, such as red campion. Seeds are carefully harvested by the volunteers at the end of the season to be packaged up and labelled, either for direct sale to visitors or to be sown in large numbers by the team.
Small seedlings are also gathered from the garden where there are too many growing. These are carefully tended and grown on to sell. Prunings provide another valuable source of new plants, for example from lavender. Nothing goes to waste! All the plants are grown in peat free compost, and the pots are all reused.
Away from the public part of the garden, there is an area where these plants are cared for, complete with compost heaps (where grass snake eggs have been found!), tool sheds, a greenhouse for sowing and potting up, and a large propagation area where all the plants can be grown on. During the summer, this propagation area is full of hundreds of individual plants, such as penstemon, nepeta and lychnis. Once big enough to sell, the team select a range to keep the stand constantly restocked.
During the autumn, the volunteers potted up bulbs to sell in spring. The first of these could be purchased during the successful half term events last week. Although currently shut for the winter, the garden opened during the half term week. Younger visitors could follow a bee trail and plant some cosmos seeds, to be enjoyed by bees later in the year. The plant stand was filled with beautiful aconites, miniature irises and snowdrops. These sold well, making an excellent start to the 2023 fundraising.
Plants for sale in Flatford Wildlife Garden, February 2023
Photo: RSPB volunteer
The snowdrops were propagated by lifting, dividing and replanting from existing clumps in the garden. As well as providing the stall with welcome new stock, this process benefits the existing snowdrops as the clumps do not grow well if they become too congested.
Thank you to the wonderful volunteers who keep the garden looking beautiful and the stall stocked with such wonderful plants. Thanks also to all those of you who have bought a plant from the stall. Your purchases help the RSPB in its work and we look forward to many more customers in 2023!
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for the RSPB, there are some exciting new opportunities available at the moment. We are particularly looking for Visitor Engagement Volunteers at nearby Stour Wood. Duties include having conversations with visitors and helping them enjoy their visit, explaining the importance of the woods and the Stour estuary, and carrying out patrols of the main trials to check for hazards and litter. If you think you might be interested, please follow bit.ly/PatrolOpportunity for further information.