12 and 26 October – community apple pressing days with Blue Barrel Cider. At the old stables on the High Street 12–4pm. All welcome to this popular, family-friendly event – help wash and crush the apples, enjoy free refreshments, buy local cider. You can also help pick the apples at the Jordans’ orchard on Arcadia Gardens 10–12 noon on each of the two Saturdays.
Oakington Eco-Home tours. Paul and Chris will be running special tours for SOW members of their home which is a case study in this year’s Eco Homes. Members should contact SOW for more information. Limited places, booking essential. A great opportunity to see first-hand how a 1960s terraced house can be retrofitted to a high standard. See the Open Eco Homes website for all public tours and talks.
Wednesday 23 October (note NOT last Wednesday in the month), 7pm (note earlier time!) at the Church Hall. The long-planned Vegetarian Community Meal. Bring and share. It would be helpful to know numbers, so will send round an RSVP form.
Wednesday 27 November – SOW meeting: How to Have a Sustainable Christmas.
And in Histon: 7 October: Conversations about Gentle Travel, 2nd December: Conversations about a Greener Christmas, 2nd November: Swish (clothes swap) event. More details to come.
Notices
These included Nature Recovery project update, a discussion about some land under threat of development in Oakington which many members would like to see acquired for nature, a report from the Cambridge Carbon Footprint AGM and from Histon and Parents for Future. Please contact SOW for more information on any of these. The green library was open for loans!
We welcomed Clara and Yair who explained that WSC is a a not-for-profit social enterprise founded a year ago by people concerned and passionate about turning surface water flooding hazards into assets.
The problems
Climate change is bringing both increasingly heavy rainfalls and increasing drought. More building makes the situation worse because of more hard surfaces. The problems are pollution and property damage by flooding.
There are two kinds of system for rain run-off (on roads etc.) In combined systems sewage is mixed with rainfall, which dilutes the sewage but means that in very heavy rain treatment plants get overwhelmed, and overflow by design into rivers.
The other system takes run-off and releases it directly into rivers – also not good because road run-off contains oils, micro-plastics, bits of rubber, rubbish and other pollutants including forever chemicals which damage fish and invertebrates. Road run-off above a certain amount is supposed to be filtered but hardly ever is.
Even where more sustainable solutions are applied large-scale, there is a worry that attenuation ponds have not been maintained. Eg the ones along the M25 are now contaminated.
Ironically we also have a water scarcity problem. When water is drained away it isn’t supporting trees and life in the soil. We need to find ways of welcoming water, for plants and to fill the aquifer.
Solutions
Pressure is being put onto water companies to invest in preventing sewage spills. However just putting in bigger pipes does not help for long – with climate-change rainfall, any size pipe will eventually be overwhelmed – and solves flooding problems only. Applying water sensitive principles, like putting stormwater into the ground instead of the drain, also gives cleaner rivers, nicer neighbourhoods and builds resilience to changing rainfall patterns.
The government is hopefully, belatedly, passing a law to demand sustainable drainage for any new development, but there is no requirement for retrofit, which costs a lot. So where do we start? With very local, simple solutions. Little interventions can nudge the bigger system and can make a big difference locally.
Principles
Put rain back into the ground as close as possible to where it falls
Get rid of hard surfaces, let water in
Lower the curve (like in Covid) – slow the flow – fill up butts and rain gardens. This is the catchment approach – on the large-scale, allow fields to flood before a village floods
Want water to go into soil and stay there, preventing later drought
Rain gardens
Earlier this year WSC did a pilot project in Fallowfield, Cambridge, a junction which is under water for half a day after very heavy rain. This was low cost, low effort – the kerb was cut in three places and the verge dug. Compost-rich soil was put into the holes, and neighbours helped plant perennials (which have bigger root systems and can survive drought) and sow wild flowers. Water fills up one pool at a time then runs on to fill the next. Compost makes the soil more absorbent :the soil’s capacity to hold moisture goes up exponentially with the amount of organic matter. Plant root systems bring micro-organisms which break down pollutants so the water is cleaner when it enters the water table.
It has worked well – after an hour or two there is now no standing water – and there has been a really good reaction from neighbours.
Rain planters
These are essentially rain gardens in a box. Lots of water enters but it only slowly drains away. The boxes are made (from recycled materials) by the brilliant Phoenix Trust in Milton. You can buy these from WSC for around £400 (which also supports Phoenix), a bit more if delivered and filled, or you can make them yourself. It’s a competitive price because WSC are not-for-profit and want to gather data on their use. They can be connected to water butts.
If the purpose is to “lower the curve” (stop sewers getting overwhelmed and causing flooding and sewage spills) empty them before the storm comes. The water then gets held back by the water butt, and doesn’t just go in the overflow and drain.
To do this, turn on your tap so it dribbles put slowly, You can use a piece of old gutter to direct the water from the tap into somewhere useful in your garden.
How and where to implement nature-based solutions
You need to know the area to know where the problems are. They can be very localised – eg a puddle which prevents people from crossing a road. Look for easy ways. You can do what you want on your own property. Cutting into the kerb needs Highways approval!
In Oakington & Westwick
We had a good discussion, including:
Celine described how in Meadow Farm Close they got rid of the concrete round the foot of the tree, and all the neighbours added plants.
David explained that when Bar Hill was built in the late 60s, attenuation ponds were included but have not been maintained so we get surface water run-off from there.
There are 19 wells in our village including 4 in the vicarage!
Westwick has septic tanks instead of mains drainage. They can be a big source of river pollution, but if you’re not seeing water come out the soakaway is probably working OK.
2014 floods – 53 houses had to have property-level protection but the flood overwhelmed them (or happened before training.) In some houses water came up through the floor anyway.
Trees are good but what to do if their roots are affecting pipes? If a tree has enough water that directs the roots down, and you can control the extent of roots by controlling the size of the canopy.
Asked about the moving of the sewage plant in Cambridge, Clara explained it’s motivated by releasing building land; it now has the capacity to serve the projected growth in the area.
The run-off from our community buildings (eg. pavilion) goes straight into drainage pipes, and Rachel suggested looking into more nature-based solutions for these. David said he’d put it on the Parish Council agenda.
David explained the PC has access to drainage system plans and that a rolling programme of maintenance has been established.
7:30pm, at the Church Hall, High Street, Oakington
We look forward to hearing from members of Water Sensitive Cambridge about their work in our area of scarce water and denuded habitats. Oakington & Westwick have suffered from flooding in the past, and Water Sensitive Cambridge have ideas about how to make best use of the precious resource of water including when there is too much of it!
Also coming up
Apple Pressing. 12-4pm Saturday 12 and Saturday 26 October. Blue Barrel Cider will be opening up their yard at the old stables on the High Street. All welcome to join in washing, crushing and pressing the locally grown apples. There will be free refreshments available at this family favourite event, along with the chance for adults to buy delicious local cider. If you really want to muck in and get the full experience, you’re welcome to come to the Jordans’ orchard on Arcadia Gardens to pick the apples in the morning 10-12 noon on each of the two Saturdays.
Wednesday 23 October – Bring and Share community vegetarian meal, church hall at 7pm – note earlier time. Please join the meal, bringing a food contribution to share (savoury or sweet, but no meat/fish please). If you have any home-grown veg left, then rustle up a stew and bring it along! Feel free to bring something to drink as well, and a minimal cash contribution towards rental of the venue will be appreciated.
Wednesday 27 November – “How to have an Eco-Christmas”. 7:30pm at the church hall. Crafts and ideas for making the festive season more sustainable
Cambridge Open Eco Homes
See the Cambridge Carbon Footprint website to book up on in-person and online tours of local eco builds and retrofits and talks and workshops by experts. One of the eco homes is very local!!
Led by John Terry, 31 July. Here are John’s notes for any who missed the walk or who would like a recap!
1. Introduction at Church Hall. You may be aware that the UK Government produce a ‘State of Nature‘ report every few years and the most recent describes a significant reduction in species abundance ( 41% ) and one of the main reasons is intensive agriculture. Over 70% of the UK if farmed or forested so the industry is significant in land use but only employs 300,000 workers including farmers. Most of the land we plan to walk on is farmed by Peter Freeman, who rents the land from the County Council. He obviously farms to sustain a living for his family, he is interested in wildlife and is also influenced by the County Estates, who are keen that their tenants farm in a sustainable way. Farming is a way of life but also a business, and the Government also grant aid sustainable approaches. The very wet winter and spring has meant that some fields were not cropped this year, which of course will not help economic performance.
2. Ridge and Furrow land used for sheep grazing. Ridge and Furrow was used in the middle ages especially in the north and especially on heavy soil as part of the open field or strip system. Each strip was farmed by one family and the aim was to have a ridge which was well drained in wet conditions and a furrow which stayed moist in dry conditions. It was created by ploughing one way so the ridge built up over years. It was said that wheat did well in the furrow and peas and dredge (spring barley and oats) grew well in the ridge, i.e. a sort of insurance scheme. Much of ridge and furrow disappeared with the enclosures, and was ploughed out especially during the second World War but where the land was laid down to grass, it was sometimes retained, as here and at Westwick.
3. The concrete bridge carries water from Girton and Oakington, and from Histon a few yards downstream on its way to Rampton, Denver and beyond. This is where water vole was recorded some ten years ago and near to where Kate Spink spotted them this spring. As she explained in the recent Journal article, Water voles are classified as endangered, mainly because of heavy predation by American mink.
4. Mansell Wood. This wood was planted in 1990 by Cambridgeshire County Estates with oak, wild cherry, hazel and hawthorn being the main species. The one and a half- acre wood was thinned/managed about 10 years later but is probably due further thinning because of the lack of light reaching the ground, reducing growth at ground level.
5. A wooden bridge takes us over the Histon Brook. This is buffered by a wide grass margin to keep fertilizer and pesticides out of the water. Unfortunately, many water courses are not well buffered and as a result they can be polluted by nitrates, phosphates and pesticides. The water companies are not the only polluters. Meadowsweet grows well here where the soil is damp.
6. The arable fields. Many arable fields today are still wildlife deserts. They are sprayed with weedkillers, fungicides and insecticides to keep crop pests at bay to allow crops to grow close to their potential. Weedkillers kill weeds, some of which are important sources of food for birds and small mammals. Fungicides are relatively harmless but if they drift to neighbouring trees, they can damage lichens (fungus/bacteria). Fertilisers encourage dense crops and high yields. There is growing evidence that artificial fertilisers and pesticides do harm to soil invertebrates and fungi. All these imputs are very expensive so farmers use them more sparingly and in a very targeted way. In the fifties, many farms, especially smaller holdings were mixed farms with both arable and grass with livestock and arable crops followed well manured grass. Consultants the started to advise a more specialized approach with arable holdings tending to be in the drier east and more livestock specialization occurring in the wetter west. Arable farmers tended to grow winter sown crops, especially wheat which tended to be more profitable because they yield more, and a big national increase in winter crops over the last three decades has reduced numbers of some farmland birds, especially corn bunting, tree sparrow and linnet, all seed eaters. Peter Freeman grows a mix of winter and spring sown crops This is better for wildlife and allows a spread of workload. Skylark cannot easily nest in winter crops because they are too tall and dense by May, so prefer spring crops. Spring crops also allow overwintered stubble from the previous year, where a number of birds and small mammals benefit from weeds, seeds and cover. Peter grows winter wheat, spring barley and spring beans as well as special crops for birds. He also grows grass for cattle and sheep, so he continues as a mixed farmer.
7. The headlands around these fields are composed of grass margins and hedges. Given the fact that arable fields tend to discourage wildlife, these are vital for biodiversity. The tussocky grass and wild flowers in these margins encourage invertebrates such as spiders and beetles (ground and rove beetles), which in turn encourage birds to feed. These areas are also ideal for the breeding of grey partridge, yellow hammers and whitethroats. The plants in this headland area include vetch, cranesbill, musk mallow and knapweed. Where small mammals nest and live in grass margins, barn owls will hunt. Brown hares graze cereal leaves during the spring and summer, but when the crop is close to harvest, hares depend on grass in the field margins. Beetles, spiders and hoverflies in grass margins and beetle banks across fields predate aphid so farmers have reduced insecticide use in the last two decades.
8. The hedge. Hedges were largely developed in the 17th and 18th Centuries, when strip farming and common land were replaced by Enclosures (voted in by landowners who held parliamentary power in the Lords). Hedges were designed to mark boundaries of land ownership and to keep livestock in. Additionally, they are now recognized as important wildlife habitats and corridors, they can assist in flood protection and help store carbon. Wildlife have three key requirements: areas which offer protection from predators and weather, for feeding and for reproduction. Hedgerows provide all three. Hedgerows can also supply timber for man for firewood, thatching spurs and hurdles. This hedge contains a wide range of species including hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, wayfaring tree, spindle, privet wild rose, Guelder rose and unusually laburnum. The more species, the wider range of wildlife is encouraged. Hedge plants provide flowers, berries and fruit, so attract birds, small mammals, butterflies and moths as well as many other invertebrates. Caterpillars attract birds and wasps; birds and small mammals nest in hedges, and the grassy areas at the hedge base are important nesting places birds. Hedgerow cutting should not endanger nesting birds, so should be avoided between March and October.
9. Hedgerow trees can add some additional habitat. Chaffinch may nest in hedgerow trees but for most, these areas do not provide much protection from the weather until the trees are quite mature. Some predators, like owls and magpies, may perch in these trees to search for prey. In this hedge, there are some elms, killed by Dutch elm disease. Young elms can survive until the bark is rough enough to attract the beetles which carry the fungus.
10. Centenary Wood. This is a community wood planted by local people from Histon, Girton and Oakington, in 2010 to commemorate the centenary of Cambridgeshire Estates. It was planted into grassland so there was no colonization of plants and animals from previous older woodland. It contains oak, wild-rose, alder, dogwood, wild privet, hazel, hawthorn, wild cherry and field maple. There is a ride through the wood to allow access and a glade to allow light in to encourage wild flowers, invertebrates, birds and mammals. The ride meanders to avoid creating a wind tunnel.
11. From Mansell Wood to the community Orchard is an avenue of field maple trees. The ground cover includes Lords and Ladies (Arum lily) a plant which captures its pollinators (midges) with a dilute sugar solution and holds them within its petals for some hours. To the right is the old port where limestone stones for St. Andrew’ Church were unloaded after their river trip from Barnock, near Peterborough.
12. Community Orchard. Planted in two periods (2012 and 2014) with a mix of traditional varieties of fruit trees including apples, pears, cherries, plums and gages. In one half the grass is cut regularly and in the other, is cut at the end of the year. The orchard is likely to become better for wildlife as it gets older, and because it is not sprayed, it already attracts invertebrates and other wildlife. The 5 habitats that orchards provide are: well-spaced trees: rotting timber with lichens, moss and nest holes; unimproved grassland; pollen and nectar for pollinators; and hedges.
Appendix 1. Sustainable Farming Initiative. This new Government Scheme has been launched, enabling farmers to be paid for good soil management, habitat creation and management and crops to help wildlife. Peter Freeman is involved in some of these options, plus the older Countryside Stewardship. Grants are also available for Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.
SOW meeting on Wednesday 31 July – meet at the church hall, Oakington, at 7:30pm for a quick tea and biscuit then we will set off on a walk through Mansell Wood and beyond, led by SOW member John Terry. Learn more about nature and our local area and find out how farmers can encourage wildlife.
All welcome. Wear suitable footwear and clothing! We expect to be back around 9pm or not too long after, depending on the group.
Notes from the SOW talk on 26/6/24 by Lou Ellis. Here is a link to her slides.
23 people present.
Lou started by saying she has changed how she gardens in the last few years. She started gardening at the age of six, helping her grandfather. Having witnessed the “Percy Thrower” era of peat and pesticides she’s seeing gardening practice come full circle to some of her grandfather’s old-school methods.
Why is composting important?
Composting is a way growers mimic natural processes to sustain or improve production.
It increases biodiversity – Lou had noticed a drop-off in bugs over the years but has seen an improvement since using new practices. Soil ecology is overlooked – above ground we only see 40% of the biodiversity around us. Soil life underpins the food web.
It enables closed-circle sustainable gardening by reducing resource use – she does not buy bagged compost any more
It also increases your awareness of garden ecology and helps adapt to changing conditions resulting from climate change
Soil
Soil is a mixture of inorganic molecules (eg sand, silt) and organic matter: bacteria, fungi, animals, decomposed plants plus water which binds to the minerals to create soil crumb. The soil crumb can persist for 50 years but is damaged by walking over it and by agricultural machinery. The organic matter is important to prevent soil erosion, which is a serious problem globally.
ideally 1 part N: 2 parts C but don’t worry too much
Fungi and moulds
Bacteria, nematodes and other micro-organisms
Macro-organisms such as woodlice and red branding worms (not the same as earthworms. Like a richer environment. They will just come up from the soil by themselves provided the compost bin is open directly on the ground.)
The composting process needs water and air. Fungi and moulds need it damper, cooler and dark; once the biomass has started to break down, the bacteria like it drier and a little warmer. We just need to create the conditions to help them “do their thing”.
How can we make compost?
“Ambient” bins
For this you just need a container, eg one made of pallets, or a commercial plastic bin. Create warm and dry conditions by covering the top and sides (eg with old compost bags; Lou re-used some black plastic sheeting.) The bigger the bin the better (but you need at least two.) To aerate, start the bin with large woody material in the base. Traditionally you speed up the process by turning the compost but this is time-consuming and not great for the wildlife in it so Lou doesn’t do it.
After being closed for 12-18 months:
Lou then sieves it. What goes through she uses instead of bought compost, and what doesn’t she uses as mulch.
Hot bins
An ambient bin on steroids! Lou had hers as a Christmas present. It composts more efficiently (90 days in summer) and you include food and kitchen leftovers (“it chomps chicken bones and beef ribs”) in a mixture with other green biomass, shredded unprinted paper, thin cardboard packaging and hollow woody stems (instead of woodchip), adding material three times a week. Some guinea pig bedding. Not grass clippings as these block air flow. She’s kept hers going two years (it runs down a bit in winter.) It smells faintly cabbagy when working aerobically as it should be, if it goes anaerobic it smells more.
This is what it looks like at the end:
Lou uses the results as rich compost, eg instead of growbags for tomatoes.
It also produces a leachate (a “compost tea”) – about a litre a week – which can be diluted 1:10 to use as a liquid fertiliser. It’s best used immediately and can be hard to get just right, but you can tell by the smell -will be OK if it smells OK!
What can compost be used for?
Some examples of how Lou uses compost:
sieved spent compost – seed mix
sieved green compost – potting mix (add gravel, perlite etc)
large bits re-composted or added to vegetable garden
sieved vegetable plot soil – lawn regeneration
Hot bin compost – rich spot fertilisation & tomatoes
Wildlife value
Adding compost increases soil biodiversity. The compost heap itself contains lots of wildlife (eg Lou has seen bumblebees nesting in it) so Lou advocates leaving bins/heaps untouched until Autumn – as you would hedging and ponds.
Other sustainable gardening practices
Mulching: Lou says this has been the single most impactful change in her gardening. It’s essentially direct composting by putting leaves, moss, twigs, and broken-up dry material directly on the ground. It benefits wildlife, retains moisture, adds nutrients, warms and protects soil and is less work too! (But if you want to grow wildflowers you need bare soil for the seed to germinate.)
No dig versus low dig (ie digging as little as possible): Traditionally vegetable plots were double digged but this is not good for soil or wildlife. Instead with a fork just turn the top layers (spades chop earthworms.) But her front garden is no-dig and is working well.
Another example of reduced-resource sustainable gardening is bedding: a lot of things sold by garden centres as annual bedding are actually perennials which can be kept going for years and propagated on by cuttings.
Lou has ongoing experiments testing other improvements, “it’s really fun.” Eg. which tomato varieties are best outside, discovering that French beans tolerate hot, dry conditions better than runners.
As a result of her improved practices Lou has seen more wildlife in her garden including foxes, hedgehogs and grass snakes.
The irecord app is an easy and effective way to record the plants and animals you see, for yourself, for the Oakington & Westwick Nature Recovery Project and for national data to monitor our wildlife.
Like so much of our wildlife, butterflies are struggling in the UK. That we know this is largely down to one of the longest running citizen science monitoring schemes running anywhere in the world. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is approaching its 50th birthday and records the trends in 58 of those 59 species. It is organised by Butterfly Conservation, who have their base in Dorset (one of the best places in the UK for butterflies, with all of those chalk specialists like Small Blue, Silver-studded Blue, Chalkhill Blue and Adonis Blues (as you can see, the Blues like chalk!)). As well as the UKBMS, Butterfly Conservation have their own version of ‘Bird Garden Birdwatch’, the Big Butterfly Count.
The Big Butterfly Count runs from 12th July to 4th August and is open to anyone, no matter your skill level. The goal is simple; count the number of butterflies you see in a 15 minute period at a site of your choosing (including when on a walk). You don’t have to be able to identify all the UK species, as the survey focuses on ‘Wider Countryside’ species. So if for you, a hairstreak is something you put on your head and a fritillary is just a plant and not an insect, then don’t worry – the survey is focussed on more common species like whites, browns and the big showy Red Admiral, Peacock and Comma. You can submit as many counts as you want during the 3 weeks. All of this can be done in a really user friendly mobile app.
A talk by Lou Ellis, SOW member, followed by a visit to her nearby garden. A great opportunity to find out how you can garden productively and help nature at the same time.
All welcome to SOW meetings, whether or not you live in Oakington & Westwick. It’s free but a donation of £1 would be much appreciated to cover costs.
Urgent – we need to borrow a gazebo!
The gazebo we usually borrow for Village Day (Saturday 29th June) has fallen through. We have great ideas for the stall to engage people about climate change but we need a gazebo to house it. Please has anyone got a gazebo they can lend on that date?
Together with the EAG (Environment Action Group) we will be running a stall focussing on Nature Recovery. Please come along! If you can spare an hour that day, it’s a good way to promote nature recovery (especially to gardeners!) and the work of both groups. sustainableow@gmail.com.
SOW’s stall will focus on climate change – what people are already doing about it and next steps they can take – with children’s activities too. Plus Nature Recovery (that will also be on the EAG stall next door, we’re working together.) Thank you to all who are helping with this stall – if anyone else can help do get in touch.
SOW meeting, 31st July, 7:30pm: Nature Walk
SOW/EAG member John Terry will lead a walk around local farmland.
The statistics that more people are concerned about climate change than many of us thought. And that to have effective conversations with people about it, you have to listen, find common ground and have empathy.
Some highlights from her tips:
People more likely to contribute to public good if they see that others are doing the same – let people know that most people care about climate change
Trust that others are already concerned and taking action.
Listen & show empathy
Help people realise their next step
Ask people what they are already doing for nature.
Encourage people to consider climate change when they vote.
Know & connect with what matters to people (eg nature, avoid waste)
Connect it to everyday life (weather, garden, grandchildren)
How can we use that at the Village Day stall and elsewhere?
The ideas we homed in on were:
Have some general info about SOW
Display the statistics (75% etc – also only 16% of the population need to get behind something to lead to policy change)
On a separate board (Kate may be able to borrow from school) have little pieces of paper with things that people can do for the environment, and have people put coloured sticky dots beside the ones they already do and (a different colour) something they plan to or want to do. And have blank bits of paper for them to add their own actions. The idea being to show by a cloud of dots that lots of people are acting.
On a table or the grass, have a craft/activity for kids – we had a few ideas but Lucy is going to ask the Eco Club
Use all this to encourage people to stop and talk. Have a list of pointers to remind ourselves for these conversations
Also have a list/photos of species seen around Oakington (hopefully for the Pollination Festival the week before too)
Sign up sheet for people willing/interested in having Kate’s camera trap in their garden overnight
Maybe get a durable beach flag to identify SOW/signpost to events. Expensive – could we all chip in?
Continue to plan via WhatsApp
Encouraging people to consider the climate when voting – Laura told us about the Greenpeace Project Climate Vote.
Other Things
Laura is running a stall at Strawberry Fair this weekend (1st June) for Parents for Future – if you’re going to the Fair, stop by and say hello.
The Plant Swap went well, engaged a lot of people and also raised £150 for Cambridge4Ukraine. SOW and EAG are having a stall at the Pollination Festival, Garden Centre 22nd June, focussing on Nature Recovery. Cambridge Nature Festival is continuing.
The next SOW meeting is on Wed 26th June: a talk by Lou on “Composing for Sustainability and Wildlife” followedby a visit to her nearby garden. Don’t miss it!
The following SOW meeting is on 31st July. Thinking of doing something outside, maybe a nature walk through the village.
Sustainable Oakington and Westwick 