Gardens, bugs and science

Workshops are longer sessions, combining talks and activities, to dive deeper into the topic and provide specific learning outcomes and takeaway actions. These are designed to be a minimum of two hours, with reduced rates for half a day (3hrs) and full day (6hrs).

Basically longer, more interactive and more in-depth! I am developing more workshops, and the current ones available are:

Spectacular Spiders

Learn about these awesome arachnids and how to manage garden spaces with spiders in mind. Contents:

– Introducing spiders (talk)
– Spider site safari (activity)
– Habitat for spiders (talk)
– Spider mythbusting (talk)
– Q&A

More details:
– Introducing Spiders. Overview of spider biology and ecology. What is a spider / what do they do / where do we find them? How to recognise some commonly-encountered UK species
– Spider Site Safari. Walk around the site (including indoors), looking for spiders, webs, egg sacks. Use spider ID guides to identify spiders / spider webs. Adjustable timings based on weather / site.
– Habitats for spiders . Considering how to manage sites / spaces for spiders; focusing on increasing habitat complexity.
– Spider mythbusting. Breaking down some common spider myths, discussing what is true, false, or more complicated than that.
– Q&A discussion. Discussion and questions with attendees

Creature Features

Creating ‘bug hotels’ that work. Considering how to manage garden habitats for different invertebrates, and whether specific ‘hotel’ style habitats are useful for them.

– Habitats or houses? (talk)
– Bee hotels (demo)
– Bug hotels (demo)
– Scaling up (talk / discussion)

More details:
– Habitats or houses? How to manage garden habitats for invertebrates. What resources different bugs might need in an environment – and whether these are better provided by a specific ‘hotel’ style design, or by a wider habitat creation / management approach.
– Bee hotels. Showing the pros / cons of different solitary bee hotel designs. Demonstrating cost-effective methods of making bee hotels.
– Bug hotels. Showing how to use natural materials to make scalable insect habitat areas that will benefit a wide range of creatures. E.g. bug bunkers, hibernation stations, log piles and leaf baskets.
– Scaling up. Discussing some of the habitats you can create at larger scales, if you have space to do so. Including: sand mounds, scrapes, dead hedges, log walls, stumperies, gabions / stone walls, ponds.

Interested in one of these workshops – or have questions?