Long Wall Ecology Garden

As part of our work on the Channelsea river, we have become custodians of the planted areas at the start of the Long Wall path, on the banks of the river. Over the next few years, we will be enhancing the area to become ‘The Long Wall Ecology Garden’. This is a garden that practices and promotes careful stewardship of the environment, a place that provides our community with the opportunity to play an active part in caring for the river and its surrounds.

It includes the surrogate floating habitats we have already created on the river, and on land, we will cultivate wild, native and naturalised species, providing much-needed habitat for birds and insects, whilst learning about our own impact on the environment in the process through workshops, skill-sharing and resilience building, balancing the needs of all species. Once established, the garden will be a place for workshops, education, conversation and remediation.

We are happy to have been awarded funding from the Grow Back Greener fund, which will provide the resources to plant a variety of fruit trees and berry bushes for the community orchard. We also plan to create welcome archways, and are working with Compost-mentis to install an accessible compost toilet.

These additions to the space will announce the arrival and cement the garden’s presence, making it welcoming and accessible. The fruit trees will begin a legacy that will outlive us all, and the community who plant them will have something tangible to care for, bearing fruit in the first years of the garden for us, whilst also providing a food source for wild pollinators.