Flatford Wildlife Gardens

One of the reasons that I co-founded Dorsetenergized and then Letsgetenergized.co.uk was my love of wildlife. For me the obvious way we can support wildlife is by making our own gardens a haven for insects, birds and other wildlife. Supporting and engaging in the development of renewable energy is another obvious way to help our environment, the fight against global warming and the Planet itself.

In recent weeks I have been encouraged by the work of environmental groups and in particular the RSPB. They really get it and their members magazine is just full of encouragement for us all to get involved and be a part of the solution.

In the latest edition I cam across an interesting article about Flatford Wildlife Garden on the boarder of Sufflok and Essex. Famous for its connections with John Constable and now its wildlife gardens.

The gardens were the inspiration and life’s work of two sisters who were given a small patch of land by their Mother. They lived in the garden one in a converted tram and the other in an old gypsy caravan. Everyday they baked and ran a small tea room for visitors whilst developing the garden over many years. Clearly their life’s work and what better than to leave the gardens to the RSPB as their legacy.

What interested me was the words of Shirley Boyle who manages the gardens today, “I think the big issues in the World these days can leave people feeling rather daunted and powerless. By gardening for wildlife, you can do something where you live that has real value for wildlife and your local environment. It can be very empowering and having an RSPB garden can provide people with real inspiration”

Shirley and her team have obviously had to work extremely hard to restore and maintain the garden and they have created a wonderful space where visitors can engage simply and without pressure with whats possible when working to support wildlife.

My own garden is a small oasis for wildlife to live, breath and thrive and frankly less is more. I don’t cut the grass so often, I leave piles of organic matter and wood around. I have some bee boxes. My wife grows many flowers specifically for bees to forage at certain times of the year. We let our trees grow and become havens for insect eating birds who seem to know throughout the year exactly what is available for them to eat.

From natural wildlife gardening it was a very short step to renewable energy. If we are to thrive ourselves alongside wildlife it won’t be done with continued pollution of our air with fossil fuels. It won’t be solved by nuclear when we have no idea how to eliminate the risk of catastrophe and storage of spent fuels we have to embrace clean renewable energy..

Renewable Energy is the future and with all us engaging and supporting its development we can reduce carbon emissions, turn back the scourge of industrialisation, get rid of old power stations and develop electric transport.

So if you have a garden make it wildlife friendly and at the sometime take time to explore the possibilities for renewable energy in your life both at home, at work and in the community.

We at Letsgetenergized only want to help, ask questions, rid yourself of confusing thoughts caused by incorrect statements in the media and by friends. We will give you the facts and we want to hear your opinions.

There really are so many people who care so lets herald the good news not the bad for a change,

For anyone interested in the Gardens the link is: http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/seenature/reserves/guide/f/flatford/