… full of planting and learning! I’m feeling settled in and really enjoying myself, I’m starting to take on responsibility and I feel like I’m really contributing to the Health for Life project.
The month kicked off with Birmingham GreenFest at the Botanical Gardens, a day of plants, crafts, auctions, food and fun. We held a stall and gave away free mini edible gardens; pots or hanging baskets planted up by members of the public with edible plants and flowers, such as strawberries, thyme and pansies. We talked to people about growing your own food and the Health for Life project, and generally delighted people with free stuff.
The two TCV training courses that I’ve taken recently, Project Leadership for Day Projects and Community Engagement training, have been excellent. During the Leadership training we talked about what makes a good leader, planed day projects and picked up loads of tricks for engaging groups. Near the end of the second day I was picked on to lead a mystery task and, after the initial panic, ended up enjoying myself and realising that I feel quite comfortable taking on the responsibility of a leader, so I’d call that a successful training session! I’m also really glad that the Community Engagement training, which took place right here in the Custard Factory, was provided, not only because it was an opportunity to catch up with some of the other trainees, but because I took so much away from it. One of the best tasks that we did was sharing a real-life work problem that we have with a group so that they could help us solve it. I spoke about a new site that we are setting up to run a Green Gym on, and my worries about how I will generate interest for the site and recruit new volunteers. My group gave me loads of excellent ideas (for which I am eternally grateful!) such as mapping local community groups, engaging the media and organising a taster day for people to visit the site and see what we’re going to be doing.
Alongside the usual Green Gyms and time spent with park rangers, I’ve also been making (and eating) lots of delicious, healthy food at a new site we’re working on in some sheltered accommodation. So far we’ve made courgette cake, frittata and couscous, fruity pancakes and shepherd’s pie, and we’ve also had the folks there giving us some of their own healthy recipes to go into a cookbook. During these sessions we’ve not only been stuffing our faces but we’ve also been preparing the communal garden for a complete redesign, including the building of some raised beds for veg growing and planting seeds to go into these beds.
Mondelēz employees having fun at Cotteridge Park
Last Thursday I experienced my first employee action day with some members of the Mondelēz finance department, who came down from nearby Cadbury World. The area we worked on is currently being used for Forest Schools sessions so already contained a fire pit and log circle, and multiple scattered cut-up tree trunks which are used for problem-solving exercises. The Mondelēz employees helped us lay some geotextile and woodchip over it to create a safe area to carry out the Forest Schools sessions. We lined the edges with long limbs of wood and sorted the other logs into seats, stepping stones and pieces with “play value”, which can be easily picked up by kids and used during the sessions. It was a great session because so much was achieved with the big and enthusiastic group of employees, and they were able to see their impact, with the area being totally transformed.
Sampling the Bourn Brook – Photo courtesy of Leo Swarayi
My most recent day of fun has been carrying out a Freshwater Invertebrate Network survey at Woodgate Valley, run by Ellen from FIN, with help from the rangers. We sampled the Bourn Brook, which runs through the country park, identifying and quantifying the invertebrates to give an idea of the water quality. I learnt to identify various invertebrates such as caddis fly larvae, mayfly larvae, wandering snails and pea mussels and hope to be involved in future surveys.
Identifying inverts – photo courtesy of Leo Swarayi
Finally, the last couple of days have been spent transplanting seedlings in preparation for Gardener’s World Live. Spring and summer here in Birmingham are looking very exciting; watch this space for more updates!
Holly