Transition Greenspaces – December Update

Our wonderful greenspaces crew have been beavering away in socially distanced pairs at May Close and The Triangle over the past four weeks.

The polytunnel is pretty much there now with newly planted broad beans and garlic growing nicely. The water catchment systems are working well, a huge amount of manure has been gathered and used, with some still in hand and the pond is settling down. The bath has been turned into a raised bed and a truck load of woodchip (courtesy of www.crowncaretreesurgeons.co.uk) has been bagged and started to be used where needed. All the garden furniture has been refurbished and we have a new toilet area adjacent to the shed as well as a huge bug hotel!

Big thanks to Alan Cory, Dom Rhoden, Tracey McLaren, Nicky Smith, David Stanton and Jo Bayly – none of it would have happened without an awful lot of your time and effort, not always in the best of conditions either – you are all such stars! And much gratitude to the National Lottery Community Fund for helping us get off to a flying start.

TTW Christmas Produce!

TTW have collected together some tasty treats for you to buy, perfect as Christmas gifts for yourself and others! All funds raised will enable TTW to keep running projects such as May Close, other wildlife / garden projects and supporting our work in the community.

We have limited stock, so if there is something you fancy, please do place your orders asap, as once it’s gone, it’s gone! We can also put together mixed parcels which will be gift wrapped.

You can choose from:

Jam, Jelly, Marmalade
  1. Apricot Jam – £2.00
  2. Orange Marmalade  – £2.00
  3. Blueberry Jam (Large) – £4.00
  4. Fig Preserve (Small) – £2.50 – (Medium) – £3.00 – (Large) – £4.00
  5. Blackberry & Apple Jelly – £2.00
  6. Spiced Pear Jam – £2.50
Chutney, Salsa, Pickles
  1. Tomato Chilli Chutney – £2.00
  2. Tomato Chilli Jam – £2.00
  3. Tomato Salsa – £2.00
  4. Tomato Chutney (Large) – £2.50 – (Small) – £2.00
  5. Beetroot Chilli Chutney – £3.00
  6. Green Tomato Chutney – £2.00
  7. Courgette Relish – (Large) – £3.00
  8. Jalapeno pickle – £2.50
  9. Beef Tomato & Chilli Chutney- (Large) – £3.00 – (Medium) – £2.50
  10. Pickled Hot Green Peppers – £2.50
  11. Chilli salts – £4.50 each
  • Lemon Drop (medium hot)
  • Orange Habanero (very hot)
  • Carolina Reaper (exceptionally hot)

If you would like to order any of these items, please do get in touch with Julia asap via email at [email protected]

All orders will be arranged with Julia and will be delivered, or must be collected, between 7th – 14th December.

A big thank you to Keith and Liane at Sustainable Sussex for very generously donating some of their delicious chilli salts and chutneys for us to sell.

Cortis Avenue Wildlife Garden Update

Over the last six months, the Wildlife Garden has been thriving, blissfully unaware of the pandemic. Although closed to general visitors, the garden has been a sanctuary for our volunteers, and has benefited from their high level of TLC.

Between April and July, volunteers visited in twos for three sessions a week. Since August we have expanded to four volunteers each session, again covering three sessions a week. By appointment we will show visitors around during a session, providing the total number at the garden stays at six or less.

Other Covid safety measures are also in place, including everyone using their own gloves, handwashing and sanitising, mask wearing if people have to get close to each other, and disinfecting tools and furniture at the end of the session. Only one person is allowed in the office hut and tool store at any one time – which brings some challenges with heavy rain showers.

Over the spring and summer the garden suffered with the drought and the pond got very low, despite our work last year to double water storage capacity. Very helpful neighbours did provide us with some water. Drought tolerant plants, like wild carrot, teasel, vipers bugloss and oxeye daisies thrived, but the apple trees haven’t done well this year.

Butterflies were abundant – brimstone, small skipper, peacock (with nettles covered in caterpillars), speckled wood, gatekeeper, and a marbled white. And of course the cinnabar moths, with their stripy caterpillars stripping the ragwort bare.

Just before lockdown we had thankfully just completed the installation of our composting toilet, and in the last month have put in the soakaway. Clearing the area for the toilet has enabled us to plant a new hedgerow of dogwood, alder and common buckthorn, under-planted with red campion and primroses.

For the autumn and winter there is plenty to keep us all busy. We are remodelling the small pond to make it more child friendly, creating bare earth areas in the meadow and seeding for next year, clearing paths, weeding borders, and tackling invasive brambles and bindweed. Let us hope that by next Spring we will be able to welcome the public back to enjoy the garden as we can.

Zero 2030 Climate Conference Wins Award!

The Zero 2030 Climate Conference won a bronze award in the Connecting People and the Countryside category at the CPRE Sussex Countryside Awards on 14th October.

Click here to read the full story in CPRE

Huge thanks to everyone who supported the event – we could not have done it without you – and to Michelle Furtado from Worthing Climate Action and Francesca Iliffe from Adur & Worthing Councils for the huge amount of time and energy you put into it, you were wonderful to work with.

May Close Community Allotment

We’ve been focusing a lot of effort trying to get the polytunnel installed before the worst of the weather arrived, as well as the pond (which still needs more work).

It’s great to now have somewhere warm and dry to work on inclement days. We were most fortunate to be given a lot of manure as well as some garden furniture (which our volunteers have been renovating), two compost bins, a water butt and some pallets – all of which have been put to very good use.  Big thanks to everyone for their generosity in terms of materials and of course our regular volunteers for their time, energy and enthusiasm – none of it would happen without your support.

The water catchment system off the polytunnel definitely works – the 1000 litre water container ended up full after only one week! Looking forward to seeing how everything grows in the tunnel over the winter now and what creatures we end up in the pond.

Worthing Climate Assembly

The Adur & Worthing Climate Assembly has begun with 40 local residents meeting online to listen to evidence from a great number and variety of speakers and experts, including presentations by Nicola Peel, Carrie Corrt & Tony Whitbread who many of you will know.

These presentations are available to view via YouTube Keep checking back for more uploads including a Q&A with TTW!

The Assembly continues until December 2020, after which time the participants will make recommendations that will go to Adur & Worthing Councils in Spring 2021.

Progress at the EPIC Site in Sompting

Over the past eighteen months the Ouse & Adur Rivers Trust have been working on a scheme to enhance the water environment and increase landscape resilience for local wildlife.

The Enhancing Places, Inspiring Communities (EPIC) project has created a new 1km section of the Broadwater Brook, realigning its course under the Decoy Farm landfill and placing it across Sompting Brooks. The main works were completed in September 2019 and the results are already clear to see.

There have been over 450 species now recorded using the site (an increase of 300 since the project begun) including the Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly (first record in Sussex in 125 years), Long Tailed Blue Butterfly (a rare migrant), Nomada zonata (a rare nomad bee species) and a rare hawkmoth. With two new ponds just constructed and 6.8ha of wildflower meadow recently sown there is high expectation that the site will attract a greater diversity of wildlife in the future.

The construction of the two silt traps and the top of the channel are collecting a lot of the pollutants coming from surrounding urban runoff and noticeable improvements to water quality are already being recorded.

One of the big successes of the project has been the involvement of the local community and many TTW members have also come along to lend a hand, in all over 1,000 residents have participated in over 150 events and activities put on by the project, many contributing to building the diverse habitats which are proving so successful.

With a hard surface track under construction the site being readied for opening to the public in Spring next year and there are still plenty of opportunities to get involved with hedge planting, willow hide construction and planting the ponds up.

To find out more and get involved with the next year of the project

Contact: [email protected]

Plastic Free Worthing

Plastic Free Worthing are back holding their monthly Beach Cleans, all socially distanced and with lots of hand sanitiser now of course!

The next Beach Clean is scheduled to take place on Sunday 15th November, by the pier. More details to come on their Facebook page, so keep checking back.

Plastic Free Worthing have also been busy working on rescheduling their Zero-Waste Fair (originally planned for March 2020) to Spring 2021. More details to follow.