Welcome to the first issue of the weekly Hope Garden newsletter! This is a bit of an experiment, I am writing this newsletter as a post published on the website and then it should be relayed to all the newsletter subscribers.
If you have any comments or feedback, about the content or the technical, please let me know hello@hopegarden.uk.
Jake Rayson
1. News
New year, new job
I applied for a part-time post as a Biodiversity Assistant with the local council, and I’ve just found out that it’s been approved! This is exciting news, well, for me. My background is in design and gardening, so I will have a lot to learn. I’m also used to working with private businesses rather than local government, so that should be another new landscape to explore.
It will be fantastic experience for the Hope Garden, as I can incorporate what I learn about ecology and council practises into the garden design.
It’s three days a week for a few months at least, so I will be working on the Hope Garden the rest of the week.
Jake Rayson
Pen Y Foidr mini-presentation
My notes for the presentation
I gave a short presentation about the Hope Garden to the Pen Y Foidr allotments on Monday 29th January. As they are the partner in the project, it was important that I fairly represent the Hope Garden! I am seriously out of practise with public speaking, so I was pretty darned nervous. But I had my 5 minute speech sketched out on an index card, so at least I said the important bits!
People were receptive though, so it was a good meeting. The main point was about maintenance. I am glad of this, because there are 3 big questions in gardening:
- Who does the maintenance?
- Where does the water go?
- Who’s paying?
Note that none of these questions are directly related to plants!
Jake Rayson
2. Links
- How to Write a Press Release for a Community Assembly — Mon 5 Feb, 7pm GMT, online workshop by Extinction Rebellion. The date has passed but there will be more.
- Buzzclub — setup by Dave Goulson, this is the UK website for wildlife gardening science, and they have an amazing page of projects which you can join in with your school or community.
- Keiron Derek Brown appears to have single-handedly wrangled a whole series of webinars at the Biological Research Centre. Some very good stuff.
- BRC’s YouTube channel
- BRC’s newsletter
- One of my wildlife gardening faves is hole digger John Little. He is on TikTok.
- BlueGreenCymru — Phil at BlueGreenCymru has been really helpful in discussing the canvas shelter. Big props.
3. Photos
This is a BlueGreenCymru gathering in full flow, under canvas
Early prototype of benches
The inspirational John Little giving me inspiration for the canvas supports
4. Hope
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
~ James Baldwin
- The Hope Garden website! hopegarden.uk
- Open Source plans on the Hope Garden website hopegarden.uk/plans
- Newsletter archives buttondown.email/hopegarden
- Social media (not yet flowing!)
- Mastodon climatejustice.social/@hopegarden
- Facebook facebook.com/hopegardenuk
- TikTok tiktok.com/@hopegardenuk
- Instagram instagram.com/hopegardenfuture
- Ko-fi ko-fi.com/hopegarden
- Twitter twitter.com/hopegardenuk