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It’s No Mow May! Join Reserves Manager Andy on a lawn bioblitz to find out what is growing in between the grasses on our lawns and in local green spaces.
Andy is joined by wildlife gardener Ellie Mitchell to explore how you can introduce more wildlife-friendly native species into your garden.
Andy has worked on nature reserves for the last 14 years, managing a wide range of habitats found in the UK. For Plantlife he looks after 8 reserves across North and East England, including a species rich hay meadow at Seaton in Rutland. Andy doesn’t have a garden but grows invertebrate friendly wildflower mixes in pots in his paved yard.
Ellie is a professional wildlife gardener, who has been creating and maintaining beautiful, wildlife-focussed gardens for over 10 years. Alongside this, she is a co-presenter of The Wildlife Garden Podcast and a regular writer for Plantlife magazine.
Have you ever eagerly taken pictures of an exciting plant, only to get home, check your phone and find all your photos are out of focus? This session will help you focus on your forget-me-nots and frame those foxgloves.
Botanist and author Leif Bersweden promotes plants by sharing his photos on social media. He will talk about the dos and don’ts of amateur botanical photography, what parts of the plant are useful to photograph for identification and much more.
Leif will be joined by Plantlife’s Cassie Crocker who will share how your botanical photos can support our conservation goals.
Leif Bersweden is a writer, botanist and nature communicator with a face-down, bottom-up approach to watching wildlife. He grew up in rural Wiltshire where he taught himself how to identify the local flora and has championed our wild plants and the joy they bring ever since. He is the author of The Orchid Hunter (2017) and Where the Wildflowers Grow (2022).
Cass, has a background in the arts, joined Plantlife in 2020, engaging the Bridgend community in green spaces and worked on Magnificent Meadows Cymru. In 2022, she then developed the people engagement strategy for the Natur am Byth species recovery program. Advocating for collaboration, art, and community involvement, she now focuses on enhancing people’s connections with nature as Plantlife’s Nature Connections Officer.
If you’ve learned the parts of a plant, the next step in your wildflower identification journey is to explore some common plant families. Join Sarah and Sam in looking at the features of 5 plant families; Apiaceae (Carrot family), Lamiaceae (Dead-nettle family), Fabiaceae (Pea family), Rosaceae (Rose family) and Rubiaceae (Bedstraw family).To recap the parts of a plant in advance, watch the Parts of a Plant webinar.
Sarah Shuttleworth is Plantlife’s Senior Ecological Advisor. She is a botanist with over 15 years’ of field surveying experience. She has a passion for teaching wildflower identification and loves to explore the natural world. She’s an active member of two local botany groups and has a developing interest in fungi.
Sam is a dedicated naturalist that has worked in ecological consultancy for seven years and is now Plantlife’s Ecology Manager. Plant community ecology and plant identification are Sam’s main passions which he loves to share through botanical training. Sam has a particular frond-ness for ferns.
About two-thirds of bagged composts sold to gardeners contain at least some peat, and almost all plants you buy are grown in it, too. Yet digging up this precious resource destroys one of our most important carbon stores and ruins a unique habitat.
Find out why organisations like Plantlife are campaigning to keep peat in the ground where it belongs, and discover how you can still have a beautiful, productive garden without it. Sally Nex, garden writer and campaign advocate for the Peat-free Partnership, and Alison Murphy, our Peat-free Intern, are joined by special guest, garden writer and former BBC Gardeners’ World presenter Alys Fowler to dig deep into the dirtiest issue in gardening.
Sally is the Peat-free Partnership’s advocate, campaigning for an end to the sale of peat in horticulture. She’s also an award-winning garden writer and professional gardener. She’s written three books (with a fourth on the way!) on sustainable gardening, as well as articles in magazines such as BBC Gardeners’ World magazine and RHS The Garden about gardening without peat.
Alison is the intern for the Peat-Free Programme. She recently graduated from the University of Reading where she studied Ecology and Wildlife Conservation, and this is her first professional role in the conservation sector. She has a passion for scientific outreach and bridging the gap between the scientific community and the public. Within the Peat-Free team her primary focus is on communications and public engagement.
Alys Fowler is a gardener, writer and former presenter on BBC2’s Gardeners’ World. She writes mainly about growing food organically and sustainably, previously for her hugely popular column in The Guardian Weekend and now for the Wicked Leeks blog. She’s author of several books including The Thrifty Gardener, The Edible Garden, and Eat What You Grow. She’s currently working on a new book about peatlands.
Gin just isn’t gin without juniper- but how exactly do the berries of this native conifer become gin, and what do botanicals add to its quality?
Darren from Maidstone Distillery will give you the answers, while Plantlife’s Matt and Ben will share what Plantlife has been doing to restore juniper to our countryside, and why Ranscombe Farm is the perfect place to forage for the botanicals that are added to Maidstone Distillery’s Ranscombe Wild Gin.
For the past 4 years Matt has spearheaded Plantlife’s work on juniper conservation in Southern England, a role that has taken him far and wide in search of our dwindling juniper populations. By working in partnership he with others is delivering juniper conservation at a landscape scale. Matt enjoys getting out and exploring the countryside and sharing his passion for wild flowers with others.
Darren is the co-founder of Maidstone Distillery along with wife Sam. He runs the day to day operations and also acts as the head distiller. The distillery manufactures five distinct spirits of which one is their Ranscombe Wild Small batch gin, proudly made in partnership with Plantlife. The distillery has won several notable awards including for its sustainability practices.
For 15 years Ben has managed Ranscombe Farm Reserve in Kent. His enthusiasm lies in practical habitat management and seeing the results of that work materialise. His intimate knowledge of Ranscombe’s habitats and the wild plants that grow there makes him ideally placed to support Maidstone Distillery to sustainably forage for the botanicals that make Ranscombe Wild Gin unique.
Nature has been a source of inspiration for artists for centuries, find out how nature influences Plantlife’s first artist in residence, Iris Hill in this online talk.
Iris Hill will share tales from her travels around the UK spending time in important places for wild plants and fungi.
How the experience has helped develop her practise as an artist will be at the heart of her storytelling, including her discoveries on the potential for the arts in nature conservation. Lisa will be joined in conversation by CEO Ian Dunn, who will weave in Plantlife’s successes and challenges from 2023 and what we can look forward to in 2024.
If you are already a member and have not received your email invitation, please email us at enquiries@plantlife.org.uk
Lisa is a watercolour artist inspired by the natural world, the connection between breath and brushwork and the utter joy that can be found when paint meets the canvas. From her studio on the south coast of England, Lisa crafts whimsical artwork under the name Iris Hill – an homage to her Nan, the woman who lit Lisa’s creative flame and helped it burn bright.
Ian joined Plantlife in early 2020 after a four-year stint as Chief Operating Officer at the University of Southampton. Previously, Ian was the Chief Executive of the Galapagos Conservation Trust and prior to that he was on the managing board of the British Antarctic Survey. He is a qualified yoga teacher and is re-engaging with his creative side through oil painting and writing.
Plantlife Members, discover the wonders of lichens with experts Dr Oliver Moore and Dave Lamacraft.
Lichens are literally everywhere. Growing on every continent and in some of the most extreme environments on earth, imagine the stories they could tell us if they could talk.
Having spent decades getting to know lichens, Plantlife specialists Dave and Oliver are going to speak for them, sharing the fascinating and surprising stories some common, and more rare species tell us about the places they are growing.
Dr Oliver Moore is happiest exploring the rainforests of his adopted home Scotland. An accomplished storyteller, Oliver champions the the smallest of the rainforest’s plants (mosses and liverworts), and inspires others to care for them as much as he does.
Whether rare or common, Dave Lamacraft loves all lichens. Often found with his nose pressed against trees and rocks, he can find hidden rareties in the smallest nooks and crannies. Dave’s passion has inspired countless others over the years to bring management to woodlands and other habitats that safeguards the future of these enthralling organisms.
Plantlife Members, join us in an engaging virtual journey through some fascinating British fungi species.
Fungi come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, from microscopic fungi you need a hand lens or microscope to see, to puffballs as big as your head and even larger.
As a Plantlife member you can join Rachel and Sarah in an engaging virtual journey through some fascinating British Fungi species. Find out what Plantlife is doing for fungi conservation and how you can get involved.
At the end of the talk there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Sarah is Plantlife’s Senior Ecological Advisor. She is a botanist with over 15 years of field surveying experience. She has a passion for teaching wildflower identification and loves to explore the natural world. She’s an active member of two local botany groups and has a developing interest in fungi.
Rachel is a relative newcomer to Plantlife and is our Head of Science. A plant scientist, she specialises in plant pathology with experience in fundamental and applied research in plants, fungi, invertebrates, and soil. She enjoys working on collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects and communicating science to diverse audiences.
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