Syresham Climate Fair

We were pleased to be invited to the second Syresham Climate Change Fair in September 2023, and spend the day chatting to local residents about the issues that concern them. This included lots of bright and enthusiastic children from the local primary school, who had created a colourful climate-themed display.

Syresham Parish Council have worked with the Wildlife Trust BCN to carry out a survey of five verges around the village. It was astonishing to see the number of species growing in what looked like fairly unremarkable grassy spaces. As a result of this survey one of the verges, which contains a particularly rich diversity of plants, is going to be officially designated a ‘Protected Verge’. This means it will be cut just once a year and the ‘arisings’ taken away to stop the clippings feeding the grass, and therefore encourage the native plants to flourish and provide great wildlife habitat.

At the fair, I had the chance to chat to other stallholders, which included a peat-free nursery based in Evenley near Brackley. Do let us know in the comments below if you know of other local nurseries and garden centres that are completely peat-free, and perhaps we could put together a directory to help others go peat-free in the garden.