It’s National Volunteers Week and we’re so grateful for our hardworking volunteers all across Staffordshire, we wanted to take a moment to shine a special spotlight on our volunteers based at The Wolseley Centre who with their knowledge and skills, created our very own plant nursery, an important behind-the-scenes resource, thanks to funding from Severn Trent Community Fund.

Wolseley volunteer April Knight shares some insight about how the idea for the nursery came about and why it is such a crucial resource for our visitor centre.

“Wolseley is a large site with many different habitats as well as cultivated garden spaces - as everyone knows buying plants can be costly when replenishing worn areas. The idea of the nursery was to sustainably produce plants, shrubs, trees, and even bulbs that had been sown and grown on site.  No travel miles needed, and peat free growing to champion sustainable gardening practice.

The new nursery was set up to be an inclusive space - a place for any volunteer or staff member to pop in and check out the "Jobs for the Week” - to spend whatever free time they had during the day quietly pottering:  potting on, sowing seeds, cleaning pots, watering the plants or even collecting seeds for the next season of planting.  The volunteering teams are usually only in once a week, so there are lots of jobs that still need to be done throughout the week especially during spring and summer. 

Volunteers planned and built the nursery - we have talented Tuesday volunteers who figured out the technical stuff whilst our creative gardening crew on Wednesday contributed inventive ways of using the space.  Everyone pitched in to make it work. We have built potting tables, compost bins, raised beds, and storage shelves - which all fit snugly into a rabbit proofed area. 

Throughout the whole process, new skills have been learned – since summer 2021 we’ve taken cuttings and collected seeds from a wide selection of plants and now have lots of new young shrubs and herbs to use across the site.

The Volunteers at Wolseley love that we are producing the plants that are then planted out into the gardens, woodlands, and pond edges. Working outside helps many of us with our wellbeing, and when the wildlife pops along to see what we’re doing and visitors stop to chat about the work we do, we really feel an amazing sense of achievement.“

- April Knight

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust relies on the generosity and dedication of our volunteers to help keep Staffordshire Wild. They help us every step of the way, from packing up membership welcome packs, to repairing paths on reserves, and making this invaluable nursery. If you’re visiting a reserve and see our wonderful volunteers, please do give them a wave and tell them "job well-done" for all their amazing work.

Thank you and Happy Volunteers Week 2023!

Thinking of volunteering?

There are lots of reasons to get involved, from making new friends, contributing to a good cause, or learning something new. We recruit volunteers at specific times of the year. Recruitment for a variety of roles is now open until Friday 9 June 2023. You can see what’s available here:
https://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/volunteering-opportunities