We've been laying down weed suppressant sheets (pictured above) and come the spring we'll be planting wild flower seeds to encourage bees and butterflies into the vineyard. Some of the seeds will be from the market garden at Forty Hall Farm, where they already have a well established flower garden (below).
Flowers in the Market Garden at Forty Hall Farm. Home to the Enfield Veg Co.
During national tree week we planted 30 small saplings donated by the Woodland Trust. Silver birch, rowan and wild cherry were planted across both fields. Planting more trees is one of the best ways of fighting climate change as they lock up carbon. They also nourish the soil and encourage wildlife.
The Flourish volunteers built a bug hotel at the top of Warren Field. It includes a wide variety of environments for the insects to nest in.
We'll also be putting up smaller bug houses, made from bundles of bamboo cane, in the roofs of our field shelters to encourage spiders, solitary bees and other invertebrates.
We've partially cleared brambles and other brush from log piles in each field to welcome invertebrates and small mammals. The clearing was done to see what was hidden under there and on both occasions a little mouse put its head out to see what was going on!
We have some ‘rogue’ vines in the vineyard rows, that are not the same variety, so we'll transplant them and grow the vines over our field shelters.
We've got lots of other little projects planned, we can't wait to record what a difference this makes. A huge thanks to the Green Team led by volunteers Dave and Nalan.
