Wildlife Friendly Chedburgh

CHEDBURGH- HELP WITH WATERING TREES GREATLY NEEDED 🌲♥️
Our newest trees in the village are showing signs of stress and really need the communities help to get lots of water onto their roots to get them through the Summer and Autumn🌲
As you may know I am relocating so this help will be needed for some time for them to survive..I will do what I can when I can until I move but can you please help???

Particularly the Rowan on Majors, the Queens tree by the bus stop and the young Oak on Chestnut Crescent.
The trees around the Erskine field and in the Wildlife garden are currently looking good but would not say no to a drink either!
The more water, the better their chances and unfortunately the Rowan is really showing signs of stress already ☹️
Can anyone living by them give them a thorough rench at all?
But if not, every watering can helps!!

Please help them survive! 🌲

Hi all,

As you may be aware I am relocating out of the village soon.
We have a handover meeting at the Erskine Centre at 6pm on Monday 10th June for those who would like to lend a hand maintaining the areas that WFV Chedburgh have created over the past couple of years.

Many thanks to all and see you then 😊

Tomorrow evening 🐝 don't miss out!

Isn't it wonderful to see our bulbs popping up!! ,😍

NEW TO THE MARKET 🏡

6 new bird boxes and 2 new bat boxes located in desirable positions on both Majors Close and Chestnut Crescent.

Now patiently waiting for suitable residents! 🦇🐦

Keep your eyes peeled for any new neighbours 🏡👀

Cowslips in the borders providing some Winter nectar 💚

Two of our youngest volunteers created some new signs for the wildlife garden with the bug hotel in mind 🐞 🐝 we hope they inspire you to consider what you can do for insects in your outdoor space!

What a great job they've done 😍 👏👏👏

It's almost AMPHIBIAN TIME!! 🐸

You can help our favourite pond visitors by being vigilant over the coming months, as Winter turns to Spring and they come out of hibernation.

Want to do more to help frogs, toads and newts?
Well, by creating wildlife ponds and log piles in your own outdoor space, you could be reducing the distance of their treacherous journeys in the hunt for breeding ponds, safe sheltering spots and food! 🐸

Starting 2024 with some sustainability TIPS dotted around the wildlife garden 💚

Go and take a look- we hope you'll find some inspiration to take some ideas away and make 2024 your greenest year yet!

A few highlights from the wildlife garden today include our largest shieldbug- the Hawthorn Shieldbug making an appearance on our insect drinking station, freshly topped up with all of yesterday's rain! 🌧️
Excitingly the first of the snowdrops were popping up; preparing to flower and we even found some wonderful named, jelly ear fungus! 👂

We've also updated our signs and topped up the feeders so go and take a Winter stroll, take a look around and let us know what you see! 👀

NEW TREES 💚

Today we planted 2 new trees in the village with a sprinkling of native primroses...

~ a gorgeous multi-stem Rowan planted on Majors Close, and kindly donated to us by 's award winning show garden (how lucky are we?!)

~a young Oak on Chestnut Crescent , kindly gifted to us by so now we have our very own Ickworth Oak right here in Chedburgh!

We will be looking for help with watering these specimens this coming year, they prefer a large, long and occasional drink over regular small drinks, as this helps to encourage the roots to grow downwards away from the rootball, rather than remaining near the surface. If you can help during the warmer months, please get in contact 😊

We hope you all enjoy these new residents!

NEW YEARS LITTER PICK!

A BIG THANK YOU to all those who attended our litter pick this morning.
We recovered another surprisingly large amount of litter from around the Village, making Chedburgh safer for wildlife and cleaner for us! 🥰 Great job everyone!

Our new 6 foot litter picker worked brilliantly and we were finally able to reach some very old items in hedges and ditches- just look at that Fairy Liquid bottle (it must be at least 30-40 years old!)

Who is coming along on Wednesday?

We have a lot of spare pickers and hi-vis available now, thanks to West Suffolk Council and Chedburgh Parish Council 😊

NEW YEAR LITTER PICK
10am 3rd Jan at the Erskine Centre!

Please come along to help us clean up the Village, all are welcome 🤗

We will have some hi-vis and litter pickers available but due to limited numbers, please bring one if you have them ☺️ Our last litter picking event was such a success, so we are looking forward to another!

Please tell your neighbours!

We are also hoping to plant 2 new trees in the Village after our litter pick, so if you wish to help out please come along!

Have you taken down your Christmas tree yet? 🎄 Here are 6 ways to recycle a real, cut tree:

1 Convert your tree into useful woodchip mulch by putting it through a shredder. Stack the chips at the back of a border for a few months to rot down before using them to mulch around trees and shrubs.

2 Keep the tree outside until the needles fall off, then collect them to use as a mulch for acid-loving plants such as blueberries.

3 Plant the bare tree in a garden border, then grow climbers such as sweet peas over it. You can also use twiggy branches as plant supports – keep them somewhere dry and use them in the summer.

4 Trim twigs to short lengths, tie them in a bundle, then hang in a bush for bugs to hide in. Or, chop the trunk into pieces and stack to create a mini refuge for wildlife.

5 Chop large branches from the tree, and lay them over plants on the soil surface to protect them from frost.

6 Alternatively, give the tree to your local council’s green waste scheme. Most councils collect festive conifers in the new year and chip them to make municipal compost or mulch. You can also contact your local garden centre, or donate your tree to a coastal nature reserve, where it may be used to stabilise sand dunes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 🌺

Let's make 2024 the greenest year for Chedburgh 💚

Walking around the village, you can spot some of the native primroses we planted last year cheerfully flowering!
They are one of the first woodland blooms and an important nectar source for early emerging pollinators 🦋

Their happy blooms also brighten the most grey of winter days! Have you spotted them? Clue: look around the base of trees, around signposts and in the wildlife garden!
Although we will be hoping to add more this Spring too ☺️

IVY FRUITS 😍

When you wander past the hedgerows in mid Winter, it’s clear to see they’ve been stripped of their Autumn berries- haws, blackberries, they’re all long gone.
But if you look a little closer, you’ll notice an often overlooked plant, the Ivy, clambering along the hedgerow, it’s energy-rich fruits ripening to a deep shade of purple.
It is in late Winter that these berries help to sustain a hungry population of birds and mammals when other resources are scarce. Without this perfectly timed, Ivy berry feast, many species would struggle to survive the cold months.

So give a little love for Ivy and always avoid cutting it back until the berries have been gobbled 🍽

Great news, our Rowan tree on Majors Close and Oak tree on Chestnut Crescent will be planted after our litter picking event on 3rd January.

Thank you for all the positive comments about the addition of the new trees to the village 😊

They will need some watering assistance during the warmer months of 2024. Trees prefer an occasional, deep soak rather than little and often, could you help us with this? Please get in touch!

NEW YEAR LITTER PICK
10am 3rd Jan at the Erskine Centre!

Please come along to help us clean up the Village, all are welcome 🤗

We will have some hi-vis and litter pickers available but due to limited numbers, please bring one if you have them ☺️ Our last litter picking event was such a success, so we are looking forward to another!

Please tell your neighbours!

We are also hoping to plant 2 new trees in the Village after our litter pick, so if you wish to help out please come along!

NEW TREE...
This sign is now on Chestnut Crescent and will remain there for a week for all residents to see.

We have very kindly been gifted a young Oak tree from neighbouring which we would like to plant here to replace the previously cut down trees. If we are successful we will aim to plant the beautiful specimen in December or early January.

If you have any concerns please do get in contact 🌲

⚡NEWSFLASH ⚡

We will be leaving all our plant material around the Village UNCUT until the weather consistently warms up again in Spring 🌼
But why?! Why not have a "tidy up" I hear you say!

We do this because dead and dying plant stems and seed heads provide a vital winter habitat for our overwintering mini beasties, as well as food, shelter and warmth for other creatures.
It also creates a natural barrier against the cold for the plants to survive a Winter AND creates some beautiful frosty scenes 😍 just like today!

Sadly, a garden "tidy up" at this time of year can literally throw wildlife in the bin 😞


Here’s some tips for those who find it really hard to leave the garden “tidy up”
until Spring but want to help us make Chedburgh more Wildlife friendly...

🐝 leave one area alone each year and aim to leave more year on year as you get used to it
🐛 tidy the border edges but leave the back of the borders in tact until Spring
🦋 it’s very IMPORTANT to keep all the pruned stems in a dry corner (and not put in the bin!) so you’re not throwing away this years wildlife 🙂

However, the more you can leave, the more wildlife you will have 🌱🐛

We need to stop seeing it as “mess” and start seeing it as an important habitat 🤩

A wonderful morning spent with volunteers, planting lots of bulbs along the main road and in the Church Yard 🌷
We also sowed some yellow rattle and planted some wildflower plug plants into the slope at the Church Yard to give it's meadow area a headstart.

Can't wait to see our hard work brightening our Village next Spring 🌼

If you wish to join our WhatsApp group for the most up-to-date updates, please send a message ☺️

NEW TREE...
This sign is now on Majors Close and will remain there for a week for all residents to see.

We have been very kindly gifted a beautiful multi stem Rowan from Stonehouse Garden Design's platinum award winning garden from this year's Gardeners World Autumn show, which would like to plant here to replace the previously cut down Rowan.

If you have any concerns please do get in contact 🌲

UPDATE- I am pleased to inform you that this tree planting will be going ahead in December or January.

A date for your 2024 calenders- this will be another evening talk 😃 we can't wait to have our minds blown once again by Mr. Hawk Honey!

Can you believe a year has gone by?! Thank you to everyone who helped create our Community Wildlife Garden and to those who continue to help maintain and add to the space.
We hope everyone has enjoyed it over this past year 😃

Monday at 9am

Meet at the wildlife garden to plant bulbs and w**d the garden 😄

Come along if you can- all help very much welcomed!