Our Eco-Garden

Our community venture

The Jubilee Peace Garden – our eco-friendly, community venture helping to fight the Climate Crisis

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Our Rabbi’s house is our Community Hub, blessed with a large garden – mostly wild, with fruit trees at the back. At the end of 2021, Thanks to Hertfordshire Cllr Stephen Boulton, we had the opportunity to apply for a Locality Budget Scheme Grant which funds community projects. Our idea was to make room for wildlife by creating a nature-friendly garden. We’d create the right habitats to make a haven for wildlife – and for the community to enjoy too by helping out and learning. It was a time when we’d been apart for far too long due to Covid, so an outdoor project was perfect to get people together again in a safe environment.

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What did we do to make our existing garden eco-friendly?

1. We formed an Eco-Gardeners Group and invited Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust to advise on what to include and where best to site things.

2. We bought a water butt, filled it with mains water and left it a few days to get rid of the chemicals.

3. We dug a small pond using an RSPB pond liner kit, put stones in, filled it with butt water and sourced pond plants.

4. We created a circular bed in the lawn area, using peat-free topsoil, and planted wildflowers from specialist supplier, Plant Wild, including strawberry, wild marjoram, red campion, toadflax, red clover, fox n’ cubs, Jacob’s ladder, teasel, kidney vetch and hemp agrimony.

5. We created a long bed in full sun (peat-free topsoil) and filled it with shrubs for pollinators including hebe, foxgloves, alliums, buddleia, lavender, chives and cat mint. Bees are attracted to flower shape as some have short tongues so need simple flowers and others have long tongues so love flowers like foxgloves. We provided a variety of flower shapes.  

6. With the idea in mind that a garden can become a nectar café for all seasons, we have spring forget-me-nots and yellow celandine and autumn ice plants. Possible “weeds” were left alone to flower for which bees were grateful.

7. We already had a compost corner but created a log pile with a dead trunk from a member’s garden. Please don’t chop down a dead tree unless it’s a health and safety risk because it’s a crucial source of life for insects and fungi!

8. We bought a variety of bird feeders, a water table/bird bath and different foods to attract different birds. Tiny pipistrelle bats had been seen in the garden, so we sited a bat box high up in a tree. In a sunny spot we hung a bug and bee hotel and placed a toad abode by the pond – all from the RSPB.

9. We created bark pathways.

10. We bought two ‘welcome’ benches as well as a wooden bench with an arbour over for honeysuckle and a wooden trough planter with a trellis back for clematis. Colourful pots finished the job.

11. The garden naming competition resulted in the aptly named Jubilee Peace Garden and it’s a wonderful place to sit and relax and listen to birdsong.