Swansea Community Farm youth and child project have been keeping busy thanks to Keep Wales Tidy’s ‘Have a Wild Weekend for Wales’ campaign and B&Q.

As part of the Keep Wales Tidy campaign, groups across Wales applied for free B&Q vouchers to help carry out small environmental projects to improve local biodiversity and benefit native plant and animal species.  The young volunteers at the Farm put their heads together and came up with a plan on how to spend their vouchers – bat boxes!  The vouchers were used to purchase materials to build the bat boxes and to clear up the Farm’s pond. 

On 21 May this year, adults and young volunteers attended a fun day to build the bat boxes which will be sited in the woodlands at the rear of the community farm.  On Saturday 30 July members of the child and youth project will be at the farm to site the boxes and also to clean out the Farm’s pond.  As well as materials for the bat boxes, the vouchers were also used to purchase new pond nets and buckets to help the volunteers to undertake this task.

Speaking about the project, Alyson Williams, Child and Youth Project Officer, said: “Thanks to Keep Wales Tidy and B&Q, our youth team have thoroughly enjoyed building the bat boxes and learning all about bats and their natural habitat.”
“On 30 July we will be getting our hands dirty cleaning out the ponds and we are really looking forward to this.  Giving the pond a good clean will ensure that the pond life survives for many seasons to come.  Everything that we do at Swansea Community Farm is geared towards working with our natural environment, and this project ensures our younger volunteers understand the importance of looking after our environment and natural wildlife for future generations to enjoy.”   

Louise Tambini, Projects Director for Keep Wales Tidy, commented:  “I am delighted that Keep Wales Tidy in partnership with B&Q has been able to support Swansea Community Farm to create spaces for local wildlife. I am sure that this project will benefit native species and encourage visitors to the farm to take notice of and appreciate the diverse wildlife we have in Wales.”

If you would like to come along and see what the team have been getting up to, why not come along between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Saturday.