(previously our St Albans Sustainability Festival 2020 page)
Due to the Corona virus lockdown, we will all be spending more time in our gardens. Because of this, Wilderhood Watch is keen to run our two events which were originally planned for this year’s Sustfest, as both of them are activities you can carry out in the safety of your own homes. They are also very child-friendly!
- The Great St Albans Sunflower Challenge
- The Wilderhood Watch Photography Competition
The Great St Albans Sunflower Challenge
Please contact Nadia with the number of sunflower seeds you’ve planted to add them to the count! For more information on how to plant your seeds, have a look at the RHS website. We will update the total to include new entries every two days. Approximately 1/4 of sunflower seeds planted are expected to grow, so hopefully we’ll have plenty popping up all over St Albans!
This challenge is part of our Pollinator Highway Project. Along with support from Grow Community – Sopwell, we are challenging St Albans residents to plant as many sunflowers as they can in their gardens during the lockdown. Sow your seeds outside in a sunny spot from mid-April through to the end of May and then contact us to let us know how many you’ve planted. If you have room in your front garden, even better, as then more people can enjoy them.
Residents all over St Albans are taking advantage of the lovely sunny weather to plant their seeds. Get ready for a huge explosion of sunflowers across the district this Summer!
To pick up a free packet of Sunflower seeds, make one of our Wilderhood Watch roads part of your exercise route. Our collection hubs are: 66 Lancaster Rd, 71 Leyland Ave, 62 Woodstock Rd South, 19a Blenheim Rd and 51 Seymour Rd.
If you’d like to distribute seeds around your neighbourhood yourself, you can make up envelopes by adding a teaspoon of seeds to each and writing brief instructions on the front. Source the seeds from Bee Happy Plants for a competitively priced and organic product, or even better, from a local organic gardener.
The Wilderhood Watch Photography Competition
We are really excited to be running our first wildlife photography competition. The Sustfest website has loads of brilliant tips on how to take a great wildlife photo in your own back garden, so please check it out!
Once you’ve taken some photos, choose up to three you’re really pleased with, email them to us by the end of May and we will display them in our Photography Competition 2020 Gallery. Wilderhood Watch members will then have a chance to vote for their favourite one, and winners will be announced at the beginning of June.
There will be winners in four age categories –
- Infant School and below
- Junior School
- Secondary School
- Over 18
Prizes will be a small, hand knitted hedgehog along with its very own hand built house.
