This year we teamed up with St Albans Friends of the Earth to present an evening of All things Batty. On March 14th we showcased our latest efforts to help bats in our gardens and gave our audience tips on how reducing our outside lighting can make all the difference to these wonderful creatures.
Sustfest 2024
In 2024 Wilderhood Watch had a wonderful time running a stall at the Sustfest Expo 24. From 9 -5pm on June 8th and 10 – 4pm on June 9th we met so many people who were passionate about making a difference for wildlife. We gave away huge numbers of pollinator friendly seeds and had lots of interest in our Wildlife Gardening Champion scheme. We also added at least two more streets to our growing WW network.
Sustfest 2023
In 2023 Wilderhood Watch was very pleased to be part of the Sustfest Showcase at the St Albans Cathedral on Saturday, June 10. We met lots of people at the Wilder St Albans information stall and gave away multiple packets of free seeds.
As well as holding various stalls on different Wilderhood Watch streets throughout the week, we also teamed up with the Green House St Albans to launch our St Albans Butterfly Challenge at the George St Canteen Wildlife Garden.
We had a fabulous time chatting about wildlife, especially butterflies, and enjoyed the company of Katie Carr who was manning her Tommy and Lottie stall close by.
Sustfest 2022
During Sustfest 2022 (May 15th – 30th) we launched our Swift Action and Wildlife Gardening Champions projects. We also ran some street stalls, including a ‘Buzz Trail’ on Saturday, May 21st from 2pm – 4:30pm.
Wildlife Gardening Champion Launch
On Sunday, May 29th from 11-3pm we launched our Wildlife Gardening Champion project at our newly created George Street Canteen wildlife garden. We had a great time chatting to all our visitors and giving tours round some of the garden’s fabulous wildlife-friendly features such as our butterfly mound, dead-hedge and pond.
If you’d like a Wildlife Gardening Champion to come and visit your garden, please contact nadia@wilderhoodwatch.org.
Congratulations to Kate Hanks and her family who were the lucky recipients of our Wilderhood Watch Hedgehog House. We hope you get a spiky little visitor there very soon!
Buzz Trail
People who collected the 6 project stall stickers on our ‘Buzz Trail’ were in with a chance to win one of our very own Wilderhood Watch hedgehog houses!(see above)
Our ‘Buzz Trail’ last Saturday took people round all six of our Buzz Stops, which each had a stall promoting one of our projects. There were activities and lots of information, as well as knitted hedgehogs and greetings cards to buy, vegan snacks and plenty of plant and seed give-aways.
People who’ve collected a project sticker from every stall now have a ‘Buzz Pass’, which entitles them to a visit from a Wildlife Gardening Champion.
Street Stalls
We ran two street stalls this year in collaboration with Sopwell Grow Community, outside number 46 Prospect rd. Residents came along to buy organically grown seeds and seedlings and were nspired to grow their own as well as creating a wildlife friendly garden.
Our Prospect Rd stall, run in collaboration with the Sopwell Grow Community, was very popular with the neighbours!
Sustainability Festival 2021
Last year as part of the Sustainability Festival, Wilderhood Watch ran a series of stalls across many of our streets, as well as joining in with the Sustfest Market on May 23rd. Our stalls sold and gave away a variety of wildlife related items such as pollinator friendly seeds and seedlings, (including Sunflower seeds for our Great St Albans Sunflower Challenge), and 20mph Hedgehog signs.
Our stall at the Sustfest market
Our stall on Lancaster Rd
Our stalls on Abbey View Rd and The Park
Our stalls at Woodstock rd South and St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane
We sold knitted hedgehogs for £4:00 each as well as hedgehog signs at the cost price of £7:50. By charging for these as well as our custom made greetings cards (£1:00), we were able to give away our packets of sunflower seeds, along with an assortment of other pollinator friendly seeds and seedlings.
If you couldn’t make it to any of our stalls and you’d like to buy some of our cards, please just email nadia@wilderhoodwatch.org. They’re £1:00 each and left blank for your own message.
We launched our 2021 Photography Challenge on the first day of Sustfest and sold tall variety Sunflower seedlings for £1:00, which people could grow to compete in our Tallest Sunflower Competition.
