ECNR and Evington in Bloom
09 July 2021 – Yesterday we had a visit from the judge of Evington in Bloom. She was very interested to hear about Evington Community Nature Reserve and impressed by the commitment people have made to devote space in their garden to nature. We showed her the Wildflower Embankment on the edge of the village green and explained how volunteers had increased the biodiversity in the grassy bank. We keenly await the result of her judgement…
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Wildflower patch latest
25 June 2021 – On returning from our recent holiday, we were very pleasantly surprised to discover how well our wildflower patch had developed while we were away. Purple tansy is the flower that seems to have dominated the patch, with its beautiful and plentiful flowers teeming with bees. We also have ragwort, field poppies, corn chamomile and (our favourite) borage in full bloom. We have heard of other successes with our seeds – along with one disappointment. If you sowed your seeds recently, be prepared to wait a while – ours have taken over two months to reach the flowering stage. View images and find out more on ‘Three-Steps-to’ guide.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Starling-Friendly Feeder
23rd May 2021 – Our previously ‘magpie-dominated’ bird feeding tables have been adapted and developed to be more user friendly to smaller birds. Starlings, in particular have been great beneficiaries and we’ve seen them taking worms for their mates and chicks back at the nest. More recently, they’ve returned with their fledglings in tow to continue their feeding. We hope this is, in some small way, contributing to a greater survival rate of the chicks and hence a greater number of adult birds. Find out more on our blog.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Garden of Hope – Woodland Trail mapped out
14th May 2021 – One of our hopes for the Garden of Hope is that we can develop the woodland as a bit of our Community Nature Reserve. This means turning it into something that is accessible to local people and attractive to wildlife. By mapping out a pathway around the wood, we have taken the first step towards our goal. We intend to manage the wood by creating small sections, along the pathway into wildlife-friendly aspects and have already produced a small log-pile. Other developments we have in mind are a pond/bog-garden, blossom, fruit and nut thicket and fruits-of-the-forest forage area. Other volunteers are welcome to join in with this work – to get involved, send us an email.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Sunflower Target 100 – update
9th May 2021 – Today was our great give-away of sunflower seeds and seedlings. Thank you to everyone who dropped by to pick up their free stuff; we gave away at least 60 seedlings and 25 packets of seeds. Don’t worry if you missed the date as we still have plenty of sunflower seeds that you can sow – send us an email message and we’ll drop them round to you as soon as we can.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Wildflower Tension Rises…
4th May 2021 – We’re hearing from people who are a little nervous about the progress of their wildflower seeds. Our seedlings are growing well but there are no signs of flowers just yet. Not to worry, we’ve been in contact with relatives who are having the same problem as us and it seems it’s just the cold weather holding things back. Even on Gardeners’ World they have been complaining of the slow development of plants in their garden this spring and have suggested we’re three weeks behind due to the chilly winds especially.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Sunflower Target 100
27th April 2021 – We have sowed over 100 sunflower seeds, and many of these are beginning to grow upwards and will be ready to plant out once the risk of frost has passed – May seems like a good bet. We’ll be giving away these sunflower plants for you to display in your garden – one plant per household plus one for each child. What we would love to see as we walk round the area in the summer is 100 sunflowers on show in your front gardens – if you don’t have a front garden please put it in a pot on your driveway. We’ll update you soon on when the plants will be available from us. In the meantime, feel free to start growing your own flowers – see what seeds are available from Bennett’s and off you go!
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Wildflowers in the Garden of Hope
21st April 2021 – Down Davenport Road, opposite the Gamel Road junction, you’ll see a sizeable gap between the ends of two rows of houses. This is the Garden of Hope which was cleared and developed by a local resident and Friends of Evington members just as the covid virus first arrived. The development included a tree-bark pathway and a planting box with a formal flower bed around it. To the rear of the garden area are two benches and a fence, beyond which lies a small woodland. We have been working with Friends of Evington as part of Evington in Bloom to develop wildflower margins around the borders to the side of the garden. We’ll soon be updating you on our progress and a link will appear here thereafter.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Verging on Success…
9th April 2021 – We taken a few simple steps to wild-up the grass verge by the road outside our dwelling. We started by mowing and raking out all the debris. The verge was already showing positive signs of biodiversity with daisy flowers, lesser-celandine, dandelion and plantain but we’ve added in a few seeds from our wildflower mix. We’re now hoping the council mowers won’t pay a visit for a while and the verge will become a haven for bees, butterflies, moths and overflies. For more detail on how to develop a wildflower area see our ‘Three Steps to Rewilding Your Lawn’ page.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Wildflower Seeds Show Signs of Progress
2nd April 2021 – Like many other participants in our Community Nature Reserve, we sowed our wildflower seeds back in early March. We’re very excited to see what looks like a wide range of seedlings appearing around the edges of the grass path, beside our pond. We’ve added an image to our ‘Three Steps to Rewilding Your Lawn’ page.
If you have any information and images of progress in devoting your land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Pay a Visit to our Bog… Garden
25th March 2021 – Today, we completed our latest garden project – a bog garden. A bog garden is very simply a garden with a lining that prevents water escaping, hence keeping the soil very wet. By growing a bog garden we’re hopeful that we can improve the biodiversity in our garden with a greater range of plants. We’ve written a blog post that describes our progress. Here’s a link to the page.
If you have any information and images of any work you are doing to devote land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
New Wildflower Embankment…
18th March 2021 – Today, as members of the Friends of Evington, we have been working on a project to develop a wildflower embankment on a verge by the village green. The project is part of Evington in Bloom and our very own Evington Community Nature Reserve. The embankment runs from the hedgerow to the pavement on Main Street – from the entrance opposite St. Denys Road to the chapel. The plan is to naturalise the wildflowers in with the existing grass and plants and this will add an area of approximately 100 square-metre to our nature reserve. We’re adding a feature page to this web-site to chronicle our progress on this exciting project. Here’s a link to the page.
If you have any information and images of any work you are doing to devote land to nature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Three Steps To…
14th March 2021 – ‘Three Steps To’… is another new feature on Little Green Shoots – short guides to help you make quick and easy changes to make your garden more wildlife friendly. Here’s a link to the page.
If you have any ideas, information or images for your own ‘Three Steps To…’ feature, please send them using our contact form or email.
Blooming Evington – new feature coming up…
8th March 2021 – As some sure signs of spring are appearing around Evington, we’ve been inspired to start a new feature on littlegreenshoots. In this new section of our web-site, we will provide images and information on the various flowering plants that can be seen around Evington. We’re hoping readers will look out for the plants themselves. For the more adventurous among you, we’ll also provide our own ideas on how to grow similar plants yourselves. Here’s a link to the page.
If you have any information or images you’d like to contribute to this feature, please send them using our contact form or email.
First Evington Households Make the Pledge…
1st March 2021 – Today we delivered thirty-four free packets of wildflower seeds to households with pledge-cards displayed in their front windows. By displaying the card, each household is pledging to devote at least 4 square-metre of their garden to nature and the pack of seeds will hopefully help people make a start. We’re really pleased with this response and would like to thank all those involved. This is a great start to growing our Community Nature Reserve. If we missed your card or you’d like a pack of free wildflower seeds for your garden, do let us know, using our contact form or email.