Eco-garden Project at Saltwells National Nature Reserve.

We had great fun in the eco-garden at Saltwells National Nature Reserve this week, creating a log wall habitat for wildlife. It is hoped the shelter provided by the dead wood habitat will encourage amphibians, reptiles, and insects into the newly developed area. On Tuesday our first group of JMA participants lifted turf to make a recess to hold the base layer of the log wall. It was heavy work, and we are all much fitter for lifting, barrowing, sawing and tamping logs. On Friday, the second JMA group focused on building up layers of logs. Getting the irregular shaped logs to fit was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together and not dissimilar to building a dry-stone wall. After all the strenuous work, adding the coping of turf, clay soil and moss was very therapeutic. A big thank you to Tom, Assistant Senior Warden at Saltwells NNR for involving our groups in such valuable activity for wildlife and that was also very rewarding for our students. We can’t wait for next week when we are going to build the second section of the wall. In the near future the students would like to share their work with friends and families by showing them around the eco-garden.