David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature

David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature "Home Sweet Home" challenge

Red Deer Village, over 50s retirement park in Glasgow, Scotland, has participated in the David Bellamy Conservation Scheme for a number of years. This scheme was originally designed to ensure residential and holiday parks consider the environment in everything that they do. It promoted growing habitat for wildlife, conserving energy, sustainability and good neighbourly actions. However, since the pandemic, they have shifted their focus to concentrate on more specific points. Rather than parks taking a broad view on a range of subjects, they are now required to commit wholeheartedly to one project. This is now known as the David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature.

David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature Award

We are so delighted that we have achieved our pledge for 2021/22, the Home Sweet Home wildlife challenge. This focused on the creation of habitat and artificial homes to help animals on our park survive and thrive. Below, we take a look at the steps we needed to put in place, to achieve this very challenging award!

Habitats

Red Deer Village have communal areas that our gardeners ensure are maintained to the highest standard. They aim to make sure the park is looking its best, whilst also creating habitat for wildlife and improving our biodiversity. We carefully select plant stock with pollinating insects in mind, and try to use native species wherever possible. Some of our plants include azalea, brunnera, marsh marigold,  festuca, yellow flag iris, water lilies, spirea and weigela. We have left areas of the park uncut to allow grasses and clover to flower and provide nectar sources. Banking is left short for solitary bees, with long flowering shrubs and native wildflower mix planted for their benefit. Hedging is planted for the safety and habitat of smaller animals, such as field maple, hawthorn, cherry laurel and Leyland cyprus.

Beetle banks are in place and beginning to break down nicely. Log piles and organic matter heaps serve as bug hotels. Frogs, toads, tadpoles and newts have been noticed at our ponds over time, with irises, lollies, orchids, primula and gentainia planted around them. Birds also stop to drink from the fresh water ponds, adding to the peaceful environment the park strives to create. A family of ducks have even been spotted! We have planted plenty of hedgerows for the safety and habitat of smaller animals, including Leyland Cypress, Field Maple, Hawthorn and privet hedges. There are also laurel hedges in between some homes on the park. Trees have been planted in the new Cedar Crescent, achieving our goal to introduce woodland. Finally, a compost heap has commenced at the back of the park.

We are now into our next phase of development at Red Deer Village. With it, we are planning on installing more communal garden areas for residents and visitors to meet and enjoy their surroundings. We are exploring installing a new pond and a host of new shrub and flower beds and borders. We are also looking to increase the number of wildflower and large boundary banking, and will be adding plants such as gorse, broom and hawthorn.

Artificial Homes

So what did we do to achieve the artificial home element of the David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature “Home Sweet Home” challenge? We started by putting up bird boxes and feeders in areas of the park where residents and the public could see them displayed. This is to benefit birds such as tits, wrens, robins, magpies, dunnocks, goldfinches, woodpeckers and many more. These are just some of the birds we’ve managed to catch on camera! One of our gardeners built an owl box several years ago, and this has stayed in the holiday park. 

Some younger members of staff have wanted to get involved in the project, so have used spare old bits of timber to hand craft hedgehog boxes. Our hedgerows are linked so that mammals have safe and undisturbed travel. Hence, the hedgehog boxes will be dotted along these to provide a safe home.

Both bird boxes and feeders and hedgehog homes are cleaned and maintained regularly, and inspected for tell-tale signs of use.

Getting Involved with Residents and the Community

The community of Stepps were monitoring and tracking some hedgehogs they’d found. They had wanted to stay updated on their health and learn more about their habits. So far, they’ve reported good news with all hedgehogs in healthy condition. We were happy to let them know that we’re interested in their progress and would like to help however we can. 

Our residents take interest in the providing of habitats and food for animals and insects. Many have their own bird feeders in their park home gardens. They can attract native animals and some rarer species, with one reporting a visit from a goshawk. They are eager to capture any wildlife moments on camera and send them into the office. We then share these photos on social media, our website and our newsletters.

As a way of getting residents more involved we have promoted bird watching as an activity. We have hosted competitions and offered prizes for those who try to make a large effort to help us achieve our pledge. Our staff members are also always on the lookout for the perfect photo opportunity. We regularly post on social media and on our website regarding important environmental issues, such as our blog on reducing carbon footprint on our holiday park website

Future Plans

So what’s next?

Our targets are to ensure the involvement of our retirement village residents with our gardening and species-watch competitions. We’d also like to encourage this with our holiday park guests, and create wildlife spotting sheets. As always, we will continue with our creation of new habitat for all types of creatures, and have some holiday park areas already pinned out for exciting opportunity.

Finally, with the “Home Sweet Home” challenge now completed, we need to choose our new focus! The David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature has plenty of challenges to choose from. We’re excited to see where our next challenge will take us!

If you would like to find out more about Red Deer Village or our conservation efforts, please do not hesitate to contact us. A member of our friendly team will be happy to help you out!