How we started
Garden Guardians is a Community Interest Company set up to help protect the natural world. We formed a few years ago in response to seeing just how much destruction was happening in our back gardens. Pesticides & all forms of poison are devasting for ecosystems yet are readily available in many retailers. With even pound shops selling them there is the false impression that they must somehow be safe, when the truth is they are anything but. The current trend for artificial grass is horrendous for wildlife and even the soil is detrimentally affected as having a plastic layer over the top of it inhibits the natural cycles of creatures who will break it down and add nutrients. The use of power tools such as strimmers causes death and injury to an unquantifiable number of animals, with one of our nation's most beloved - and endangered - animals, the hedgehog, being one of the primary victims. With this, and so much more, happening across the country we wanted to help inform people as to how relatively small changes can do tremendous good.
Our Vision
With the UK's gardens covering an area larger than all our nature reserves combined, we saw that there is a huge opportunity to create a network of havens for wildlife across the country without having to rely on systemic change or input from the government, which, as we all know, can take a long time to happen! We decided to spread the word about how best we can all do our bit to help the environment, address issues connected with climate change & help the struggling wildlife on our doorstep by making simple and easy switches in our gardens. Growing Wild For Nature is our latest project and this aims to bring this message to the younger generation by offering interactive events with a wide range of free activities, all designed to help educate, empower and inspire young people to become nature guardians. We have been lucky enough to partner with the stunning Michelham Priory in East Sussex where we will have the Growing Wild For Nature base. We will be running events throughout term time, inviting classes along to get involved in seed-bomb making, t-shirt printing, adding to the 'World's Biggest Nature Picture', storytelling, songs, badge making, quizzes, games (including the ever-popular 'whose poo'!), seed planting and lots more arts and crafts - all with the central theme of helping the natural world. Because we recognise how important nature is for our well-being, we have also included mindfulness nature meditations to help participants find a sense of calm and connection.
How it will work
Each participant will go away with some native wildflower seeds and, hopefully, a lot more knowledge & enthusiasm. Each school that joins us for these special events will sign a 'Nature Guardian' pledge where they agree to take steps to help the environment. This could include things to take place on school grounds, such as the creation of a wildlife pond, as well as activities to take place around the local area such as organised litter picks or beach cleans. Each agreement will be specific to the individual school and part of the pledge will be to report back to the rest of the school about what was learnt at the Growing Wild For Nature event, thereby spreading the message even further. For those children who attend schools who weren't able to make it to the term-time events, we are offering Growing Wild For Nature during school holidays as well. To help amplify our message, we are working with some amazing groups and organisations, all of us working towards the same end goal. We believe that empowering children to understand more about the natural world will elicit a sense of wonder and awe about these unseen universes on our doorstep so that they will naturally become advocates for the environment. We aim to show that by implementing small changes, we can help restore habitats, increase biodiversity & offset some of the terrible damage that has been wreaked on the environment. By giving knowledge and igniting a passion within young people, we are giving the necessary tools of change to tomorrow's decision-makers.
Something everyone can get involved with
We also understand that times are challenging for people and many don't have a lot of money to spare to pay for outings. We want to make this project as accessible as possible so are raising funds so that we can offer these events completely free. We will be prioritising invites to schools in areas with higher percentages of low-income families, ensuring it is as inclusive as possible. The wonderful people at Michelham Priory are offering a 'kids go free' incentive for the school holiday events and we will be adding to this to offer free entry to parents facing financial challenges.
No time to lose
The UK is beautiful and home to many wondrous creatures and plant life, but it is also one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world having lost over 50% of our biodiversity. Our wildlife is in dire straits, with one in four of our mammals in danger of extinction, and 16% of all our species threatened. We must act quickly to stop this decline. We owe it to our children to do better, and what better way of doing this, than by giving them a vision of how things can be?
You can help!
Together we are stronger and our hope and vision for the Growing Wild For Nature project is that it will create networks of passionate people all doing their bit and spreading the message of how we can all help the natural world. In donating to this crowdfunder you will be helping to share a very valuable message with as many people as possible. Thank you!