Orchard Barn Biodiversity Boost

Aim

Boosting biodiversity at Orchard Barn by enhancing ponds, laying hedges, creating wildlife habitats, and training volunteers in conservation

Orchard Barn Biodiversity Boost will restore two ponds, lay hedges, build deadwood habitat and install bee/bird/bat homes—while training local volunteers in hands-on climate action. Donations fund a part-time supervisor, a professional hedge-layer and wildlife-friendly materials. Help us turn brash into biodiversity and skills into lasting stewardship.

Volunteers get hands-on preparing our own clay for re-use. (One of our Rewards is a course in how to build with clay, including Earth Mortar - see YouTubevideo)

Orchard Barn began 18 years ago with a simple idea: bring people together to learn, share skills, and care for nature. Since then, we’ve grown into a volunteer-run project called OBee CIC (Orchard Barn environmental education Community Interest Company), welcoming over 109 volunteers in the past year alone - 84 from Suffolk, 7 rest of East Anglia, 7 from across the UK and 11 from overseas - to reconnect with traditional crafts, sustainability, and the land itself. 

Photo showing Lammas celebration in our old orchard

Our vision is simple and joyful: more dragonflies and damselflies skimming our ponds, more butterflies and bees in our meadows, and newts and frogs thriving in healthy habitats. By training and inspiring volunteers, we’ll create spaces where wildlife can flourish — and where people discover the power of working with, not against, nature.

The money we raise will fund a volunteer supervisor/trainer, materials for pond and hedge improvements, and resources to make bee hotels, bird and bat boxes, and wildlife-friendly planting. Every penny will help us turn “waste” wood into biodiversity havens and give volunteers the chance to learn, belong, and make a difference.

Together, we can build a legacy of skills, community, and thriving nature at Orchard Barn.

Please check out the rewards we have available. Rewards include courses in how to make your own Clay Paint, Hedge-laying, Pole Lathe use and more. Thank-you for your support, and remember that your donation will be DOUBLE matched, firstly by Aviva Community Fund and secondly by British Airways Better World (every £20 gets tripled and becomes £60)!

THANK-YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT - let's bring back the Dragonflies!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made