sunnyhillnaturegarden images

Toasting the Garden 🍸🦋 Our community wildlife garden celebrated its spring open day last week. We welcomed local families to enjoy the space, take part in activities, and join us in toasting the garden with a botanical cocktail! 🦋Pondlife discovery 🦋Meadow creation with Yellow Rattle 🦋Forest School crafts 🦋Tree, plant & fungi ID 🦋Marshmellow toasting 🦋Botanical cocktails & mocktails We enjoyed a refreshing beverage I created for the garden, with edible flowers to flavour and colour, based upon a 'tom collins'. This was a thirsty crowd, so thankfully our garden secretary, Alexis, was on hand with me at the bar! 🍸🍸🍸 85 local residents came to enjoy the open garden, which is a good turnout for a very rainy afternoon. What a great team! Thanks to: Adrian, Michelle & Alexis from SNUG Dylan @froglifers Wayne @sccoopstreatham Changing Lives grant from Lambeth Council @lambeth_council #communitygarden #wildlifegarden #urbangarden #streatham #changingliveslambeth #changinglivesgrant #sunnyhillnaturegarden @friendsofsunnyhill #botanicalcocktail #urbangreenspace #community #celebratecommunitygardening

Future Mycologists 🍄🤓 Children are often the best at spotting fungi, and in no time at all, they had spotted 12 different species during our school sessions over winter. 🍄🤓 I was impressed, not only by the childrens eagerness to observe the fungi developing week by week, but also in the actual diversity of fungi on site. 🍄🤓 These sessions were delivered in an urban community garden situated in a residential area over a railway line with no mature trees. However, over a century ago, the area would have been covered in farmland and, prior to that, with ancient woodland- part of the great north wood which covered south east England. 🍄🤓 Jelly Ears were their favourite to stroke, with one child saying they were like velvet, and another saying they were as soft as a baby's bottom 🤣 They also loved the slimy caps of the Velvet Shank after heavy rain, the intricate structure of the Coral Fungus, and the 'smoke' from the Candlesnuff Fungus. Species recorded: Jelly Ear Wood Blewit Coral Velvet Shank Coral Spot Candlesnuff Also spotted but not in these pics: Yellow Brain King Alfred's Cakes Turkey Tail Shaggy Parasol Glistening Ink Cap Tar Spot 🍄🤓 Thanks to the teachers and pupils at @sunnyhillprimary for their mycological enthusiasm, and to @lambeth_council for funding the programme through their Changing Lives grant 🫶 [NB. These fungi were spotted last term during the winter season] #youngmycologists #londonfungi #urbanfungi #winterfungi #forestschool #urbanforestschool #forestschoollondon #sunnyhillprimaryschool #sunnyhillnaturegarden #streathamschools #lambethschools #changinglivesgrant #changingliveslambeth

Tree Sugar 🌳🍭 For our hunter-gatherer school programme last term we considered if our community wildlife garden contained everything we needed to survive. At first glance, the children all said "no" immediately. Where was the water and the food? 🌳🍭 Late winter can seem dull and bleak, a stillness in the woods. However, all is not what it seems. Just beneath the rough bark of the trees, there is movement. The deciduous trees are starting to wake up from their winter slumber. The sap is rising 🌳🍭 We learnt about sap, the sugary water created by the tree to grow, from the sugar factories in its green leaves to the fibrous roots collecting water deep in the soil. How is maple syrup different from honey or golden syrup? Imagine a class all about sugar! 🌳🍭 We tasted some tree sap syrups, flavoured with flowers and berries growing wild in the community garden. It was sweet, new, and exciting! Thanks to pupils at @sunnyhillprimary school in London for their enthusiasm 🫶 🌳🍭 Scroll through to see an easy sustainable to harvest sap such as the traditional Birch. It's a survival skill which I call 'the pruning methoď', you only need a knife, plastic bag, string or elastic band. If timed right, in the 2 week tapping window when the sap rises, the tree will fill a little bag and seal off the pruning cut itself the next day. 🌳🍭 Nothing like a refreshing drink of sweet water straight from the depths of the earth, filtered by the trees 💧 . . NB. Not all trees have edible sap, some are toxic. Safety first, always . . #saprising #birchsap #huntergatherer #schoolsessions #outdooreducator #outdoorlearning #forestschool #ethnobotany #ethnobotanicaleducation #londonforager #urbanforestschool #sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillprimaryschool #streathamschools #southlondonschools #lambethschools #tappingbirchtrees #sustainablesugar

Young Botanists 🌿📋 Our new schools programme has gotten off to a great start with the enthusiastic pupils of @sunnyhillprimary surveying key plant species at our community wildlife garden (a.k.a SNUG). 🌿📋 We studied key species and their lookalikes, such as stinging nettle vs dead nettles vs mints, dock vs sorrel vs alkanet, plus learnt about exciting species such as marsh mallow 🌸 and poison hemlock 💀 🌿📋 With our hunter-gatherer eyes we surveyed the land: could we survive living just off the wild species here at SNUG? An interesting thought, and the theme of survival and winter adaptation is one that will carry through all the sessions this term 🌿📋 The children are also helping us record the species so we can find out how biodiverse and beneficial to wildlife our urban community garden has become since it was a dumping ground for waste 🦋 🌿📋 Thanks to my fellow team at SNUG and @sccoopstreatham and programme funding from @lambeth_council Changing Lives grant 👏 #changingliveslambeth #changinglivesgrant #lambeth #lambethschools #southlondon #streathamforestschool #streatham #Sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillschool #youngbotanists #botanyinschools #speciesrecording #plantidentification #urbanbotanist #urbanplants #communitygarden

"The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky" Margaret McMillan It's Outdoor Classroom Day!🔍 We've been working on our community wildlife garden, called SNUG, getting ready to welcome @sunnyhillprimary back for our fully funded Forest School & outdoor learning programmes. The shelter and compost toilet are almost ready, thanks to @tcvlondon and the pond has been boosted with native pond plants to support a wide variety of wildlife. The children will be taking part in citizen science activities monitoring and supporting the flora, fauna, and funga habitats on site. They'll also be learning Forest School skills and helping to redesign and rewild the natural spaces in their school grounds. Funded by the Changing Lives grant from @lambeth_council and with support from @sccoopstreatham @outdoorclassroomday #changinglivesgrant #changingliveslambeth #urbanforestschool #communitygarden #londonwildlife #citizenscience #scienceoutdoors #streathamwells #streatham #Sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillschool #ponddipping #outdoorclassroomday #outdoorclassroomday2023 #lambethschools #teachoutside #learnoutside #outdoorlearning

Studying Pond Habitats 💧📋 Children from @sunnyhillprimary explored the woodland, meadow, and pond at our community wildlife garden to find out if it was a good habitat for wildlife. 💧📋 They last visited in autumn, and the garden looks completely different now with tall grasses, mallows, hazel trees, and nettles! We saw beautiful irridescent blue Damselflies, locked together in a 'mating wheel', and laying eggs on the pond plants. We lay in wait like predatory water birds to catch the jumpy pond skaters. 💧📋 Can't wait to see the pond develop more this year. Hopefully, our funding bid will come through soon so we can build seating, compost toilet, shelter and run educational sessions with local schools and community groups 🤞🤞🤞 . . . #communitygarden #sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillschool #wildlifegarden #ponddipping #pondcreatures #schoolworkshops #outdoorscience #scienceoutdoors #outdoorlearning #outdoorclassroom

New Pond: Citizen Science 🔎🐛 Our wildlife garden's new pond is starting to get established. The site, which previously was a fly-tippers paradise in Streatham, south London, is fast becoming a thriving biodiverse habitat 🦋 But we needed to know how healthy our new pond was, can it support diverse pondlife? 🔎🐛 Thanks to an intrepid GCSE student from the local secondary, we won a grant from @jackpetcheyfoundation for an immense pond dip kit made by @muddyfacesuk . Along with natural history museum expert 'fly girl' @ericamcalister and @sccoopstreatham , plus Year 4 from our local school @sunnyhillprimary , we set about surveying our pond. WHAT A TEAM! 💪📋 🔎🐛 I'm currently typing up the data for the funding report so haven't crunched all the data yet, but I can say that we found exciting creatures such as Damselfly and Mayfly larvae, which are great signs of a healthy pond! 🔎🐛 The children got an extra special gift to thank them for their citizen science data, a signed copy of Dr Erica's new book 'A Bug's World'. Highly recommended if you know kids who love minibeast hunts 🐞 🔎🐛 It's been brilliant to see the site develop, and I'm looking forward to testing again this summer to see what we can find in warmer weather 🌤 . . . #flygirlnhm #sunnyhillnaturegarden @friendsofsunnyhill #sunnyhillschool #ponddipping #citizenscience #bughunts #pondcreatures #outdoorlearning #scienceoutdoors #biologyoutdoors #scienceinschools #pondsurvey

Young Wildlife Gardeners 👩‍🌾🐞🌻 🐞🌻 I've loved seeing our new community wildlife garden come to life this Spring. Everytime I visit there's something new and unexpected! 🐞🌻 It's been fantastic to run fully funded sessions for pupils and staff from the local school to help create a site which is accessible and engaging for outdoor learning. 🐞🌻 The children's energy created a gardening frenzy of mulching young fruit trees, planting and watering bulbs, creating new paths, digging up invasive butterbur, pruning bramble, investigating fungi and insects near the pond, and learning about poisonous plants to avoid. 🐞🌻 They are excited to use the site more this year with their school and family. The first phase of the project is now complete, and we are now preparing for the next phase to be able to provide more sessions for local residents. The site is still new but with so much potential for nature reconnection and biodiversity boosting 💯 🐞🌻 Thanks to the following for their support and funding: @lambeth_council @mayorofldn @sccoopstreatham @friendsofsunnyhill @sunnyhillprimary . . . #sunnyhillnaturegarden #communitygarden #streatham #lambeth #southlondonwildlife #urbanwildlife #citylife #wildlifegarden #wildlifegardening #earthwildlondon #earthwild #urbanbiodiversity #mulching #younggardeners

Gardening & Play Day 🌳🐞🌞 🐞 Hazel & woven willow hurdles, heuristic treasure baskets, mud kitchen, digging paths, fairy towers, signs of Spring spotting... 🐞 Thanks to all the families to enjoyed Sunnyhill Nature Garden today. The weather started off with chilly sleet, then turned warm and sunny, before turning again to snow with huge fluffy flakes! ❄ 🐞 Our newly flowering tulips are better at forecasting rain than the weather stations, when they are sure its going to be a warm sunny day their yellow petals open wiiiide. But if they sense a chilly or damp day their petals stay firmly shut- the pollinators won't want to be out in wet weather, and the rain may wash the tulip's lovely pollen away... 🐞 We have a 'no picking' rule on site. As you know, I love a good forage, but some areas need to be left alone. Our SNUG team are working hard to boost biodiversity on our small site, and our nature garden is now starting to thrive. Flowers are here for us to enjoy with our eyes 😍 and for wildlife. We also have alot of the old Poison Hemlock! As well as some other cheeky and harmful plants, so until you know what you're picking- no pick, no lick, no kick 👍🏻💚 🐞 As you can see from the pics, the under 5s chill out den was a great space to read stories, make music and explore the heuristic treasure baskets of natural objects- endless possibilities for play and child-led learning 🐞 The children loved banging the hazel sticks with mallets to create vertical posts, then weaving willow withies for our 'fruit fence'. Much needed to safeguard our little fruit trees and bushes from excited tramplings! 🐞 And...mud kitchen 💯🤎🍽 🐞 If you live in SW16 (Streatham, south London) and want to find out our next Open Garden Day, send me a message and I'll add you to our contact list 📧 🐞 Thanks to @sccoopstreatham @lambeth_council @mayorofldn @sunnyhillprimary @sunnyhilll_eyfs @friendsofsunnyhill . . . #sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillroad #lambeth #stayandplay #forestschool #heuristicplay #treasurebaskets #under5s #streatham #outdoorplay #sw16 #southlondon #earthwild #afterschoolclub #gardeningclub #mudkitchen #lovenature

Open Garden Tomorrow 🌱🐞🦋 🐞 Streatham families, come along to our new community wildlife garden on Sunnyhill Road! 🌱 Take a peek at how the site is developing and take part in free children's nature activities run by @earthwildlondon @sccoopstreatham @lambeth_council And our brilliant SNUG volunteer group 🦋 Under 5s welcome from 1.30pm, and older children welcome from 3.30pm 🐞 We are just a minute's walk up the hill from Sunnyhill School 🏫 🌱 Thank you to our funders! @mayorofldn @lambeth_council . . #sunnyhillnaturegarden #sunnyhillroad #streatham #southlondon @sunnyhilll_eyfs @sunnyhillprimary #wildlifegarden #communitygarden #opengarden #gardeningclub #under5s #stayandplay #forestschool #urbanwildlife #thursday31stmarch #spring2022

Year 2 visited Sunnyhill Nature Garden this afternoon to explore microhabitats and observe the creatures living there. They used their scientific investigation skills to ask and answer questions about the living things they found. #lifeonland #livingthings #year2science #sunnyhillprimaryschool #sunnyhillnaturegarden #striveforexcellence #takeresponsibility #everyindividualmatters #lovewhereyoulive

Toasting our Community Garden 🎉🍷🌳 Our first public event in the new community garden! It's still not quite finished, but wow every week it gets closer thanks to amazing volunteers and @sccoopstreatham 🐞 We made nature-inspired tree cookie baubles and willow star wands, as well as building bee homes and tree planting with @lambeth_council, and investigating cool insects with @ericamcalister 🍷 We warmed up with wild spiced mulled wine and blackberry cordial. Made with foraged aromatic roots, seeds, fruits, flowers and leaves to connect us to the amazing hidden flavours growing wild all around us. 🌿 I had some brilliant young helpers crafting our mulled wine recipes with elderberries, sloes, magnolia, wood avens, mugwort, bay, pine, lemonbalm, sweet woodruff, and some orange zest (locally foraged from Sainsbury's) to finish 🔥🍡 The fire was welcome on a cold damp December evening, heating the infusions and toasting the marshmallows 🌳 I think this wildlife garden will be much loved for many years to come . . . #sunnyhillnaturegarden #streatham #community #communityevents #earthwildlondon #earthwildrecipes #wildrecipes #wildspices #foragedspices #mulledwine #mulledfruit #blackberrycordial #eattheweeds #locallysourced #wildlifegarden #londonwildlife #communitygarden #lovenature #lambeth #woodcookies #willowstars #naturaldecorations #christmascrafts #flygirlnhm

Creative Stone Age Science 💎🎨 💎 Great introductory school sessions working with @sunnyhillprimary delivering curriculum linked interactive workshops in our new community garden 🌱 💎 The garden isn't quite finished yet, but it is important to get the teachers and pupils feedback on the site before final developments are made. The children were incredibly excited to be the first to enter their secret garden and were desperate to return soon! 💎 Their topics at the moment are the stone age and rocks & soils. They enjoyed scavenging for items around the garden, creating a basecamp with shelters and knots, setting up their crafting tables and switching on their imaginations to craft a protective and good luck stone age amulet using natural soils and stone age tools 💎 Crushing chalk for paint, powering charcoal for ink, sculpting clay with found materials- all with only a tiny amount of precious water per team. Whilst enjoying this (very!) messy activity they were exploring properties and formations of rocks and soils in a very kinaesthetic way. The most memorable and fun way to learn! 💎 It was interesting for me to observe how the children interacted with the site and how the flow and practical space for activities worked with a school group. These observations will feed into our final developments for the garden, to support the school in bringing their pupils here independently 💎 For me, I love hearing the children explain their creations- each child's personality and imagination being so different and resulting in such varied creations. There were animal charms, gemstone powered wands, poisoned spears, magical amulet necklaces... 💎 Such a brilliant experience, seeing the garden come to life with learning and excitement 😀 . . . #stoneage #sunnyhillnaturegarden #streatham #community #primaryscience #rocksandsoils #earthwildlondon #handsonlearning #outdoorlearning #outdoorclassroom #creativethinking #creativelearning #teamwork #amulets #ks2 #keystage2 #scienceworkshop #crosscurricular #southlondon #workshopsforschools #londonworkshops #lovelearning #outdoorplay #kinaestheticlearning

Nature always finds its way to thrive. Utterly beautiful 🙌🏼🌱🫀 the hairy bulb was found growing within the soul pile. Working at Sunnyhill Nature Reserve today, helping to create the new pathways and clear away endless amounts or rubbish and single shoes. Don't ask me why there's always single shoes left behind 🤯🤷🏻‍♀️ #wildisearth #liviapalmiero #sunnyhillnaturegarden #earthcycle #bulb #conservation #ecofriendly #zeroplastic #zerowaste #urbangardener #fromtheearth #soilhealth #photooftheday #instagood #picoftheday #love #nature #lifeisgood #instapic #instadaily #instamood #streatham #lambeth

Teacher Training & Site Survey 📚 🌿 As you may know, I've been working with @lambeth_council park team and @sccoopstreatham to create a new wildlife and nature garden for the local community to enjoy in Streatham, south London 🌿 When we first explored the site it was an overgrown unloved and regularly fly-tipped site with huge potential for use by local residents as a space for relaxation, community and learning. After over a year of delay due to you-know-what 🦠 and other unforeseen issues with invasive plant species, it was great to finally deliver the first session at Sunnyhill Nature Garden! 🎉 🌿 I love building relationships between people and plants, especially with their local woodland and greenspace, so delivering teacher training and site consultancy is one of my absolute favourites 🌿 The fantastic staff at @sunnyhillprimary @sunnyhilll_eyfs met their new Forest School and outdoor learning site for the first time last week! We enjoyed guided site tours, interactive natural crafts, poisonous plants and tree ID, discussing benefits and barriers to taking learning outdoors...with the view to kickstart ideas about how they might wish to use the site for the children and the curriculum💡 🌿 I'm looking forward to delivering more training with the school later this year and seeing the site develop into a loved community space and an urban wildlife haven. Large parts of the site remain untouched and wild, and introductions of a pond and log habitats will boost local wildlife 🐾🦋🦔🦇🐞🐾 🌿 Does your school have a greenspace you'd like to use or are already using? If you'd like bespoke training to help you make the most of the potential then get in touch! . . . #forestschooltaster #forestschoolcpd #forestschooltrainer #adulttraining #siteconsultancy #environmentaleducation #streatham #london #southlondon #lambeth #urbanforestschool #urbanwildlife #community #londonschools #sunnyhillnaturegarden #urbanwoodlands #urbangreenspace #primaryteacher #primaryschools #curriculumlinked #teachertraining #insetday