Biodiversity

1. Bringing Back the Birds - tips from Monty Don
    
2. • Don’t cut seed-bearing plants back until Spring
   • Put up nesting boxes and bird tables
   • Keep an area of long grass
   • Provide fresh-water
   • Plant native species and lots of berries, especially hawthorn
   • Plant hedges but do not cut during nesting season (Feb-Sept)
   • Never use insecticides
      
3. Adopt a vegetable. With a donation of £10 to the Henry Doubleday Research Association’s (HDRA’s) ‘Adopt a Veg’ scheme, you can help pay for their Heritage Seed Library’s (HSL’s) handling, storage and propagation of vanishing varieties. If you become a member, you can choose six seed packets a year from the HSL seed-bank to grow yourself. www.hdra.org.uk
    
4. Plant trees, plants and seeds, wherever and whenever you can, whether it be a window box, your garden or patches of exposed soil down your street. You will be helping to preserve biodiversity, sequester carbon and cheer up your neighbours.