Welcome to the community nation reserve

says David Rowell

People in the Deepings are being encouraged to get involved in a great new wildlife gardening scheme … from the comfort of their own garden.

The Langdyke Countryside Trust – which already owns and manages seven nature reserves in the area – is launching a unique campaign to create a community nature reserve.

The Langdyke Community Nature Reserve – the Trust’s eighth – will be made up from a whole range of established and newly created wildlife gardening plots … including yours!

The aim of the project is to bring people together across the local community, and particularly across the Deepings, to promote wildlife-friendly gardening and to give nature a chance to recover.

Organisers aim to share good practice and celebrate successes and make it easy for anyone to get involved.

Taking part isn’t difficult and you don’t even need a garden to take part. You could just install a window box or put up a bird table.

Every little thing you do will help nature.

It could be as simple as letting the grass grow in one area, putting up a bird box, planting some nature-friendly plants or leaving a pile of wood for hedgehogs and other wildlife to live in. The gardening scheme is part of Langdyke’s overall project to create a vision for nature across the area it calls John Clare Countryside – particularly the villages around the Deepings and between Peterborough and Stamford.

The peasant poet John Clare, - who lived in Helpston, trudged the countryside and wrote about it in many of his poems. No matter how large or small your garden you can get involved in creating the community nature reserve by pledging an area of your plot which is turned over to nature.

If you already have a wildlife friendly area, that’s brilliant. If not, why not consider what you could do to create one.

All you have to do is measure an area that you can call wildlife friendly – it may be there already or you have plans to create it. Then visit the Langdyke website and pledge it as a little piece of the eighth reserve. There is no cost and your garden will still be your own. You can find out how to measure your plot and how to get involved by visiting the Trust website’s eighth reserve page at https://langdyke.org.uk/the-eighth-reserve/

You can also view a video there explaining more about the scheme as well as pledge your support. In the meantime here are some simple tips: • When buying plants from a garden centre try and purchase wildlife friendly ones • Save the leaves in the autumn and pile them up in sheltered areas to create habitats • Let the grass grow • Feed the birds • Install a bird table or bird box • Don’t cut back hedges or trees in the bird nesting season • Keep a lookout for hedgehogs and make sure they can get in and out of your garden • Create a wildlife pond

There is more information and videos on the website.

Langdyke, which is a charity run entirely by volunteers, is always on the lookout for families who want to become members and offers a variety of events (mostly online at the moment because of Covid restrictions). It is hoped to restart nature walks and family days on the reserves in the near future. The Trust is also interested in hearing from anyone who wants to get involved in nature by volunteering to help with either admin roles or work on one of its reserves. You can find out more by visiting the website langdyke.org.uk

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