Hi my name is Luke Presley I run a community group called fox haven nature garden in Highridge along with surrounding neighbours. Our aim is to bring the wildlife back into our neighbourhoods by cutting back and clearing overgrown brambles, trees, and bushes in neglected patches of council land then adding in wildlife attracting shrubs, plants, and wildlife habitats. We hope to attract bugs/insects and butterflies into the area which could help maintain a natural food chain to attract other types of nature into the area. Our hope is to entice or help other communities to take control and join in with us to convert neglected overgrown council areas in their own neighbourhoods into a place for wildlife to strive and for local children to use for educational forest schools.
My story
It all started with a chicken, a metal garden ornament with plastic jewels that looked beautiful, my neighbour Sally asked me if I could attach the chicken to the wooden arch that led to our community washing line area. I happily said yes, that led to a horse shoe to be hung along with other bits of treasure. This brought me out of my isolated shell and gave me ideas of building wooden items for the garden to help neighbours and myself create a wonderful community garden, I started by building Sally a potting bench and myself a shed and then picket fences, veg beds, planters, and a bar. As I got to know more people from our neighbouring block, I was made aware of the fight some had taken on with the council to have the field behind our community garden cleared of all brambles that has taken up most of the space behind and now encrouching onto our fences, which was already falling apart, the discussion to clear the field had already been going on for years prior. After gathering my own thoughts over next few days, I gathered the courage to hop over the fence with my petrol strimmer and a few hand tools and started to cutback the overgrowth and the only small patch of grass there was, keeping parts longer for the current main inhabitants of the land (foxes). After a part of the field was cleared, I got the chance to wake up to sun beating down on a clear patch of land with a pair of foxes sunbathing in the middle of the field, it was a wonderful sight to see them, each day after that there was always something lovely to wake up and look out at. So, I continued to go over and maintained the small patch of land I have cleared with a lot of help from Sally and support from other neighbours, which built up my confidence a lot.
A few years had passed and we all really forgot about the discussions many had had with the council about the field behind being cleared. This is when we met Heather, she was over the back looking at the overgrown field as Sally confronted her, asking and opened communication between them. They ended up discussing about the field and that we have been trying to keep it down the best we can. a little while after, we received a letter from the council signed by Heather telling the surrounding tenants to the field that she will be doing door to door calls to discuss the field and what we would like done with it. all surrounding households to the field all said the same as we did, all we want is the field to be cleared and maintained so that the wildlife can freely use it and we can enjoy it by seeing them live and survive. Myself and Sally mentioned that we don't mind taking the job on ourselves to bring wildlife back to the area then Heather added that it would be nice if it was built and sculptured for small groups of supervised children to use for educational purposes a suggestion, we completely agreed on.
We set our aims on getting the council to help us to help them by getting us a gate installed into our fence for easier safer access to the area, this took a long time of weekly emails and meetings with Heather and our housing officer to action this goal. after a long battle we finally got our gate. We already had cleared it ready for the workers to build the gate, the moment it was finished I instantly got out over the back and began clearing all rubbish, brambles, stinging nettles and general waste, which showed the extent of damage that has been made to our fence which brought us to our next discussion with the council. As soon as the council seen the work done on the area, they soon granted us a new sturdy fence. Which prompted our small group to changing a small section of the area into a well-maintained clear patch which we have planted apple trees and flowers in beds with natural branch edging, with a clear path also edged off with natural branches. we keep open communication with the council and local neighbours around the area to achieve our goals.
