Garden and Nature Park Volunteers - December Update

The KWT garden and nature park volunteer teams have been very busy this autumn, doing some of the work which has been missed for nearly 2 years and prepping for some exciting new projects. Due to the pandemic and the volunteer team not running for nearly 9 months, jobs like digging out trees from the meadows and wild clematis were missed and after a lot of hard work all year, the gardens are starting to shine again.  

At the Sevenoaks Elemental garden, the dilapidated willow shelter is being given a hard haircut, which will encourage lots of new growth, to weave in again next year and the leaky pond will soon be getting a new liner. Thanks to a very kind legacy donation, the garden will soon feature steel cut sculptures of some of the amazing animals to be seen on the reserve.  

The park at Tyland barn has been glowing in the autumn sunshine and children coming to the home learning forest school groups have been enjoying the head height pile of leaves, which were left out for them by the team of gardening volunteers. Big plans are in progress here with the old playground area being turned into a horticultural learning space and a new dipping platform bridge going in this winter. The beautiful mud kitchen made by volunteer Mike Remon, has also already been well muddified.  

Volunteers are always welcome to join the Tyland Barn or Sevenoaks gardening teams, either regularly or as a one off. Contact volunteering for more information. 

Thank you from Celia and all the education and engagement teams who use the gardens, to all the amazing volunteers who have worked so hard this year, both at Sevenaoaks and at Tyland Barn, to bring back the gardens to their beautiful, inspiration self once again. 

I have written a few words to say thanks to yourself, and every single member of the Sevenoaks volunteers. If you could forward this to them, I would be very grateful and if there is any other way it could be shared with the Kent Wildlife trust it could only be a good thing.

Dear all,

As you know I was furloughed from my Chef job in London over the past year or so. It has to be said it was a very difficult time for me as I really enjoyed my job, and I was so busy cooking all the time. To suddenly have that taken away, and then with nothing to do and the worry of wondering if I had a job to go back too was so hard.

I knew I had to do something and looked into volunteering and along came the Kent Wildlife trust and a chance to work in the wildlife garden at Sevenoaks wildlife reserve every Tuesday.

Well, what a great experience it has been and how much it has helped me during those difficult months. Just to be part of a team again and talk and laugh with people and have social interaction. Gardening and physically doing something outside helped me feel much better. Not only that I've learnt so much about wildlife and wildflowers, that you would only get from working with wildlife experts and volunteers. I've learnt about planting a wildflower meadow, the ancient art of hedge laying, identified a whole range of native wildflowers. I've seen various butterflies, slow worms, Roman snails, all manner of birds like goldcrests, woodpeckers, the first swallows of the summer flying in and best of all a Kingfisher flying over the lake! I've seen the garden transform from the gloomy winter months where we did a lot of work, into a beautiful vibrant place full of flowers and buzzing with wildlife over the summer.

These are just some of the things I’ve seen and experienced and all this along with such a great set off volunteers, has made a difficult time a much better one and to be honest I don’t know what I would have done without it. 

So thanks again Celia and the team for having me. I also hope this can influence anyone reading it to get involved in volunteering for the wildlife trust, it can help you as much as it helps Kent Wildlife! 

I am back at work now and fingers crossed it will stay that way. I do miss everyone in the team though and think of you all there every Tuesday. I hope I can arrange to visit sometime in the future and see everyone again.

Best wishes to you all for the future and again thanks for having me!

Regards,
Tom Troth