Dr Steve Head fills St. Jude’s

On 29th April, almost 300 people packed St Jude’s for a fantastic evening celebrating the launch of Britain’s Biggest Living Garden (BBLG). After some wonderful music by Caroline Chan, we were treated to a fascinating, lively and insightful talk by Dr Steve Head - leading ecologist, founder patron of the Wildlife Gardening Forum and scientific partner to the BBLG project.

Steve explained simply and concisely:

●      Why gardens, with their managed high density of plants and habitats are the most biodiverse type of land in the UK.

●      How, taken together, UK gardens cover an area larger than nature reserves, and form connected corridors across the country.

●      That wildlife-friendly gardens don’t need to be, and indeed shouldn’t be, “overgrown messes” and that simple decisions will make sure that beautiful, fun and functional gardens are also aiding biodiversity.

●      His excitement for this project and why the Suburb is such a unique opportunity and how he hopes to measure the impact we have locally and use that as a scientifically rigorous case study on the national and international stage.

Steve ended with a quote from Simon Henderson, CEO of HGS Trust: “The Suburb is a collection of many houses in a large garden, not a collection of houses with many gardens.”

I talked briefly about different ways in which people can get involved and pointed out that you don’t have to do everything in order to be able to do something - i.e. every little matters. The evening - which has been followed by an outpouring of support and excitement - ended with lots of questions after which everyone left gratefully clutching the pollinator friendly seeds kindly donated by Sarah Raven.

With grateful thanks to Michael Eleftheriades for images