Greetings and welcome. I’m having a bit of a summer break to recharge my batteries, so no more newsletters until early September. | I am giving a talk called Gardening in a Crisis for my local Extinction Rebellion group, as part of a Climate Matters/Her Yr Hinsawdd day at the Small World Theatre in Cardigan/Aberteifi on Saturday 9th September. There are some great talks, about climate justice, the river Teifi estuary in a time of climate change, and climate science and activism, plus a whole load of activities including block-printing and e-bike display. |  | You can see my name from here |
| For full details, have a look at the website xraberteifi.uk | Hope Garden | In other news, work progresses slowly with the Hope Garden. This is a show garden for the climate emergency, a wildlife forest garden with a Community Assembly at its heart 💚🌳🤲. We’re aiming to get into an RHS show in 2025. For more information about Community Assemblies, see this PDF here by Trust The People. | Once we’ve moved house, we’ll be applying for funding. I have set up a Ko-fi funding page! This is where I’ll be posting updates, at least until I have the website up and running, so do follow me there. | | In my downtime, I’ve been playing with a prototype 10 metre by 15 metre space. I’ve used bamboo & string to create the assembly area, about 6m diameter, and it shows the 3 sections for the seating plus 1 section for the facilitator and note taker. I’ve used upturned supermarket crates in lieu of benches. |  | Crates for benches! |
| The final size will be more like 8 metres diameter, catering for about 25-30 people. The assembly area will be covered. I was thinking about a tipi, or a yurt. But I saw a simple canvas roof by our friends at BlueGreenCymru, and it works really well (and cheaply!) This is my comedy sketch: | | Forest garden photos |  | I love this accidental colour combination of Ragwort, Hogweed and Highbush Cranberry |
|  | A huge range of wasps in the forest garden, this is in the Ichneumon family apparently! |
|  | And this is the cutest black and yellow fellow, on the polytunnel timber |
|  | Autumn Olives ripening |
|  | My trustworthy Felco secatuers that I am grudgingly coming to admire |
| Inspirational quote | “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” | | | | ~ Audre Lorde |
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| YouTube latest | Subscribe to my YouTube channel bit.ly/subscribe-natureworksgarden | Quick links | | Hire me | Wildlife and food forest garden designer natureworks.org.uk/design | | |
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