From barnacles to bees with Growing Confidence

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.

Tidal treasures
(Top: Dog Whelk, Left: Top Shell & Bottom: Periwinkle) 

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.

Weed removal

Our newly planted tyre

Sowing seeds

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.

Planting our paper pots with sunflower seeds

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.