During the Easter
holidays young people from the Growing Confidence project had fun at the
seaside and also spent a day at FSC Preston Montford.
The sun shone all day
for Growing Confidence Project away day to meet Andy from the North Wales
Wildlife Trust at Llandudno. First stop was the north beach where we spent the
morning discovering who and what lives on the rocky shore when the tide goes
out. Top spot was a starfish and Andy introduced us to the world of limpets,
barnacles, top shells and dog whelks.
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| Tidal treasures (Top: Dog Whelk, Left: Top Shell & Bottom: Periwinkle) |
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| Top spot: Starfish! |
Following lunch, the
effort of a steep walk up the Little Orme was rewarded by the amazing sight of
57 seals and pups lounging in the sun. A fantastic day at the seaside!
Later in the week a
group of young people got into garden challenge mode tackling some overgrown
areas of the sensory garden at FSC Preston Montford. This area is being
transformed and brought back in to shape with the help of our regular gardening
volunteers and Duke of Edinburgh volunteers - find
out more about these opportunities in next month’s blog.
Weeds were removed from
tyre planters and a layer of peat free compost was added to ready them for
plants and seeds - we favoured nectar and pollen species such as calendula,
bugle, nasturtium sunflowers and scabious.
Good use was made of damaged wellies, which were no longer suitable for
use by our visitors, and fingers crossed we will have nasturtium topped wellies
all summer.
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| Weed removal |
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| Our newly planted tyre |
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| Sowing seeds |
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| Having fun planting up reused wellies. |
Paper pots were made using
newspaper and everyone took home a pot or two planted with sunflower seeds, which
will provide a little pollinator haven in their own garden.
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| Planting our paper pots with sunflower seeds |
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| Sunflowers - ready to take home |
The sensory garden is
already a haven for wildlife and with the increased planting of nectar rich
species it should support even further species which can be observed by all our
visitor young and old. During the
Growing Confidence residentials this summer for young people over 16 we will be
planting more species trying to increase the length of flowering season of
plants in the area.
You can find out more about the Growing Confidence project, an
environmental project for young people aged 11-25, at www.field-studies-council.org/gc or you can email gc@field-studies-council.org
If you would like to know more about volunteering please
contact us at enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org
FSC Preston Montford.
