Garden Wildlife Week 31 May to 6 June

Garden Wildlife Week encourages you to explore, investigate and celebrate the amazing creatures that live in gardens.

Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive, Kent Community Foundation, said, “One of the focuses of our new environmental strategy is projects that include education about local wildlife and nature. During Garden Wildlife week we wanted to talk about one of the many wildlife projects we have funded over the last twenty years. Brogdale Collections, in Faversham, has a Garden for Wildlife to provide interactive education aimed at understanding insects and their place in nature. In 2019 we funded their bee conservation and education project to help preserve this vital species.”

Set in over 150 acres of farmland in Faversham, Brogdale Collections was awarded £4,000 from Kent Community Foundation for their project to help preserve bees in their natural habitat, educate the public about the importance of bees and train local disadvantaged young people to help with the bees.

The funding was used to purchase colonies of bees and hives, and to train local volunteers, including young, disadvantaged people to help run and maintain the bee project.

Sara Smile, Operations Manager, Brogdale Collections, said, “Our bee conservation and education project was designed to help prevent the decline of this important species of wildlife. We used the funding from Kent Community Foundation to set up bee communities and to train volunteers. We initially bought five hives and were thrilled to be able to bottle and sell 150 jars of honey in our first year. Our bee education project has been so popular that we have extended the activities to include bee walks and a bee exhibition. These will be running all next week to tie in with Garden Wildlife week.”

Click here to find out more about Kent Community Foundation’s environmental strategy.

Brogdale Collections in Faversham is the home of the National Fruit Collection. Set in over 150 acres of farmland, there are over 4000 varieties of fruit trees, from apples, pears, quinces, and plums to cherries. Their Garden for Wildlife provides interactive education aimed at understanding insects and their place in nature.

To find out more about the Brogdale bee walks visit - www.brogdalecollections.org/event/orchard-crafts-bee-walk