Tag: Blue Campaign Hub

BLUE Campaign

Blue hearts have been used as a symbol for a number of different campaigns. People were asked by some to put blue hearts in their windows to show support for the NHS. One of the campaigns I am most interested in, is the Blue Campaign for wildlife. https://bluecampaignhub.com/ This campaign encourages people to bring their local area to life by gardening for wildlife. We believe that each individual can change their surroundings and help restore UK biodiversity, either in their own garden or by working with councils or schools. Once one blue heart appears, others often follow.

If you would like a healthy garden full of colour and life, re-wilding is for you. It takes less effort than conventional gardening, and all of the plants are already in place, waiting for a chance to grow. You do not need to use wildflower mixes however it can be fun to see what extra plants these might bring.

Sowing wildflower seeds St Peter’s churchyard, Belper

There are a number of specialist websites that I have used. meadowmania.co.uk They have over 30 years’ experience of producing and supplying the highest quality seeds and plants, and they are passionate about British native wildflowers and seed. Rewilding part of your garden is also one very easy step to help restore UK biodiversity with habitats including long grass, hedges and ponds. Another company I have used is Naturescape www.naturescape.co.uk who are based in Langar Nottinghamshire. They have fields of wildflowers that you can walk around and a tearoom worth visiting.

Naturescape, Langar Nottinghamshire

You can start by leaving an area of your lawn without mowing it, when you do this, the native plants in your lawn will start to flourish, providing food and shelter for a wide range of invertebrates, birds, mammals and amphibians. You can do one mow in September once all the plants have seeded, but a completely undisturbed section will lead to a more developed habitat. The idea of the blue hearts on a stick is that if you place them in the area it tells everyone that this is being done to make a difference for wildlife and not because you cannot be bothered.

This garden is part of Belper Open Gardens and the blue heart shows the area being left for wildflowers.

It does not matter what your blue heart is made from but whatever you use may encourage others to do the same. In 2019 St Peter’s Church Belper gave away about thirty blue hearts and packets of wildflower seeds.

St Peter’s Summer Fair June 2019

#showthelove Event Belper

Belper’s first ‘Show the Love’, Eco Event took place on Saturday February 15th in St Peter’s Church. It was a very wet and windy weekend but this did not deter people from attending which was fantastic. The idea was to have a variety of organisations for the public to talk to about the issues of our changing climate and how we can each take a few steps towards living more sustainably.We are not all going to agree on all the issues but it is important to have conversations and then decide what we feel is our personal next step forward. Maybe the biggest thing we can do is consume less and consequently waste less, working towards saving both money and our planet.
Last Saturday we were challenged by India to consider eating Edible Insects and if this was not something you could do, what about your Pets? The Guardian newspaper published an article which said that 25% of the impact of meat production comes from the pet food industry. Is it time we changed what we feed our cats and dogs? India had a selection of Edible Insects from Crunchy Critters at Ilkeston and had baked some chocolate brownies made with cricket flour.George with his Belper Beats Plastic stand had hints and tips for reducing plastic but also asked people to sign his petition. The petition hopes to persuade Amber Valley Borough Council to give better information on items that can be put in our household recycling bins. George is concerned that many people may be contaminating their recycling unintentionally  causing lorry loads to end up in landfill. He also wants the council to take food waste and turn this into compost.Marisha and Andy had information and examples of things that can now be recycled through their small business Hidden Potential Recycling.Sue from Sue’s Sustainables had lots of help and advice on changes we can make to live more sustainably. She also started the food waste initiative, Sharing not Wasting and of course runs Belper’s first almost plastic free shop.

Charlotte continued to promote the Refill Belper, scheme and sell reusable water bottles. She has worked hard to persuade cafes and other businesses to fill the publics reusable bottles so that less single use plastic bottles are bought and then very quickly end up in the bin.There were stands with information about local initiatives and volunteering opportunities. These included Belper Parks Wood Volunteers, St Peter’s Community Garden, Belper Permaculture Network, The Woodland Trust and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We we’re encouraged to consider how we manage our own gardens and consider leaving areas to grow wild for insects, birds and small mammals. There were free wooden blue hearts and fabric blue hearts, plus packets of free seeds. The idea of the blue heart is to show that an area is being left and why, hopefully to encourage more wild areas in the town.Noah gave away Show the Love badges, made and designed by India. He also encouraged people to give donations for some Eco booklets written by four young people and the money raised was given to The Woodland Trust.Derby Greenpeace had information on electric cars among other things and we were very lucky to have two parked at the front of the church. The Derwent Valley Trust had a map of their proposed Cycleway along the valley thus making cycling a safer and more enjoyable option.Transition Belper had a very informative stand detailing their many projects in the town. Through them households can get help and advice about their energy use. They also promoted Belper Goes Green which this year will happen on the last weekend in May 2020.Its important that we help to educate young people about the effects of climate change and they need knowledge about what their personal carbon footprint is. These are issues that will effect them all but we need to be careful not to frighten.  One way of doing this is through story books such as ‘Carbon Monster’. Katherine Wheatley author of this book helped to run a children’s activity and gave us the exciting news that her second book will be published in April this year.There was an opportunity for anyone of any age to print a design of their choice with Jane a member of Derby Extinction RebellionKim and Heather had lots of information and examples of sustainable fabrics such as wool, linen and flax. Heather had examples of yarn she had spun from banana skins and mint tops and Kim had examples of how she uses sustainable fibres in her work.There was a cafe area and plenty of time for people to chat.The conversations about caring for our environment will continue in Belper and hopefully we will all work together as a community who cares.