#StayWild Tip: Encourage wild at work. Hang up bird feeders, grow herbs or transform a lawn.

I’m sure our plants, birds and animals are appreciating the start of the wet spell, although there is a definite sense of things hunkering down a little after the warmer weather – not so much bird song, not so many fledglings out and about, and, when I passed the ospreys this morning, the female was on the nest keeping the chicks dry, while the male was perched, preening restlessly.

The vegetables that we have been tending at the Youth Project will be especially grateful for the wet weather. It’s been challenging keeping them dry in the heat and, even though everybody has been looking after them, I have found myself checking them with intense regularity! The carrots, broccoli and cabbages, and potatoes in the raised beds have so far escaped molestation by molluscs, but I wonder if the wet will lure them out?

Either brocolli or cauliflower

More potatoes than we know what to do with

Carrots could use a weeding…

Really proud of these onions!

Inside the lovely warm polytunnel we have tomatoes, some mini sweetcorn and a mystery plant which I think might be cucumber?

Tomatoes

Sweetcorn

#somekindacucumber

I’m very excited to see what kind of crops we get, and we hope to use some of the produce for our cafe as well as encourage some of our younger people to take an interest in growing things too. There’s a real sense of responsibility and ownership that comes from taking care of something and watching it grow, as well as having to develop resilience when things fail or don’t grow to plan.