We all know that a we can find a huge variety of British trees and shrubs at nurseries and garden centres, but have you ever thought of growing them from seed at home? Throughout Autumn, thousands of Families across the UK have been joining in the 大象传媒 Breathing Places Seed Hunt; looking for seeds to help create future woodlands. | "The idea is to spark an interest in nature that the children will then take back home" | |
Armed with just their wellies and a Breathing Spaces seed gathering bag, five families from the Everton Family Centre took a trip down to Knowsley's Wildflower Centre in Court Hey Park to see what they could find. Matt Dawson, the Wildflower's education officer, led the expedition and says there's so much to discover about the changing seasons. "It's all about Autumn really - about seeds, the falling leaves, and what the seeds are going to become in spring. The idea is to spark an interest in nature that the children will then take back home and apply to their own gardens or local parks." Court Hey Park was a great place for the hunt - there were loads of different varieties of seeds and fruits. Many of them were being enjoyed by the park's frisky squirrel population, and well as the birds who chirruped at us from the treetops as we foraged.听 The trees in the park included oak, ash, and sycamore. We found plenty of acorns, some rosehips, ash and sycamore keys. But the fun didn't stop in the woods. Once the leaves and seeds had been collected the children took them back to the Wildflower Centre's classroom to examine the booty.
 | | Children gathering seed in the Woodland |
"You can bring a small world alive with a microscope" explained Matt. "It just brings everything to life for the children". In fact, quite literally. Under the microscope we could see that many of the seeds and fruits that the children had gathered were in fact home to a whole host of bugs! The children made leaf prints, sun prints - with special photographic paper - and drew pictures of what they had found on a giant frieze spread across the classroom floor. They also planted their acorns and other bounty in recycled pots, and took them home to plant out next spring. | 
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