Our garden is blooming with new friends and biodiversity

Well the sun has finally come out (and we’re actually now into a heatwave), but the garden is in full bloom and looking wonderful.

Our produce and plant sales continue to go from strength to strength and we’ve also had a busy early summer with some new groups at the garden as well as some interesting visitors by way of wildlife.

East Kent Community College

Throughout the spring and summer, Stream Walk collaborated with the East Kent Community College with outdoor sessions hosted by Andrea and Laura.

“It was a pleasure to host and interact with the staff and students of EKC. The sessions with the students have been so helpful, they have helped to complete ‘real’ jobs that have lessened our to do list greatly.

Both Laura and I have gained so much from spending time with the young people. It is refreshing and insightful to see how a different generation works in the garden and to see them slowly coming to see the space as theirs. We watched as they became more confident and open.

The staff who accompanied them not only worked alongside the students but also supported us – helping us to deliver a real work life experience.” Andrea, SW session worker

Whitstable Youth Centre

We held 3 sessions for young people in July at Stream Walk. The group were from
The LGBTQ PLUS community and the ages ranged from 12-19 years old. What a fantastically engaged group who each appreciated the garden in lots of different ways. The ethos of the sessions was to provide a safe environment for the group to learn about growing and harvesting and exploring the wildlife in the garden. It was lead by the young people who decided how they wanted to spend this recreation time. Some just enjoyed relaxing and chatting in the rotunda! Others helped to clear hedging, harvested salad to take home and planted up their own dedicated raised bed with lettuce and basil. And two of the group designed a sign for their bed which they chose to call ‘ the gay garden’ (image below). The next 3 sessions are planned for later in August.

Butterflies

And in early August, one of our regular volunteers and nature-lover, Freddie, made a count of all the butterflies spotted in the garden.

Because of the cool Spring, it’s been a bad year for butterflies but thanks to our new meadow area and our two ponds we’ve been lucky enough to have had some welcome vistors. This was the result of Freddie’s count:

Gatekeeper 25+

Meadow browns 5+

Large & small whites 10+

1 Wall (especially exciting as they are high priority!)

1 Comma

Coming up:

The ‘Family fun day ‘for St Andrews pre- school 2024 will now take place on Wednesday 21st August 10-1pm. The planned activities will be bug hunting- pond dipping- salad dressing making and other crafts.

And don’t forget it’s Wild About Whitstable Week August 12-18th.

Here’s the programme of what we’re doing at the garden:

Catch you again soon!