Let it grow: the case for messy gardens and living soil
by Elle Runton. Deputy Trustee Sussex Green Living.
Learn more about soil health and thriving gardens https://www.instagram.com/julietsargeant/
It would be fair to say I’m not yet a gardener. My grandfather had a smallholding, and my uncle just lays his thumb on a plant leaf and it blossoms at his touch, but I’m embarking on a learning journey—with some success. My local Sussex nursery-bought raspberry bush yields fruit for months every year without fail (possibly thanks to its daily cup of used coffee grounds), and my blackberries are sweet and plump under the Sussex sun. I haven’t needed to buy any of those so-called superfoods—just pop along to the fruit bed and help myself free of charge!
When exploring how to get more from your veg patch, I discovered the importance of soil health. Most of us probably wish for a garden that’s easy to care for, beautiful and beneficial to the environment. According to Juliet Sargeant, presenter of BBC Gardeners’ Question Time, it all starts with the earth. Speaking at the recent Sussex Green Living “Plant to Plate” Festival in Horsham, Juliet explained that soil is not just dirt: it’s a living, breathing ecosystem filled with microbes and earthworms that break down organic material and release nutrients. When we use synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, we harm the delicate balance of nature that supports healthy plant growth.
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Dogs and Wolves: Saving nature in Lewes where dogs are behaving like wolves! In Lewes, dogs are on a mission to help the environment, and they’re doing it by acting like wolves! A long time ago, before wolves disappeared from the UK in the 1760s, they travelled across large areas every night, sometimes covering over 20 km. While they roamed, their fur collected seeds from wildflowers and grasses, which would later fall off and grow into new plants, spreading nature far and wide. 
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Preparing for Spring: Flowering Food for our Hungry Pollinators! As we head towards autumn, it’s time to think about spring planting and preparing our outside spaces and Pollination Education Stations (PES) for the coming year to give our pollinators the best chance of survival during the winter and provide them with rich, nutritious food sources when they emerge next year.
Animal Friends: On Monday this week, I attended a wonderful open-air theatre performance in a hornbeam circle in a private woodland.
The tree circle to create the ‘stage’ had been planted many years previously and the play wasn’t unique only in its setting- it had been crafted by the young children who performed it. They designed and produced the whole play, including recording the soundtrack. 
Morag Warrack
Rainbows and Hope. Rainbows have always been a symbol of hope, and I took this photograph at the weekend, just after my friend had said, “It’s impossible to take a good photograph of a rainbow.”
Without nature we are nothing. With that in mind, Sussex Green Living, Horsham Eco Churches and their supporters joined more than 60,000 people, representing 350 environmental groups on the Restore Nature Now march (led by Chris Packham) from Park Lane to Parliament Square in London on June 22. It was a well organised family event, with amazing costumes, music, banners and speeches, chants led by children and echoed by adults. Carrie Cort, CEO Sussex Green Living, said it was her first attendance at an event like that in London, she found it inspiring, empowering and motivating. She felt very honoured to walk with so many others and met people who had travelled from as far afield as Aberdeen, Abergavenny and the Lake District to join the march. 
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ation Education Station initiative is a response to the urgent need to address the declining population of pollinators in Britain, which are vital for food production and maintaining ecosystems.
Nicky Scott, otherwise known as Mr Compost, is based in Devon and for many years has been the driving force in Community Composting across the county. This is his story.
