CHEDZOY NATURE WALK Our Vision
Our vision is to encourage education through access to nature.
Our Goals
By providing visually different habitats with:
- Easy access gates
- Resting areas
- Signage
- Walking guides
- Plant ID labels
We hope to inspire our community and beyond to Observe, Think, Learn and Create change.
The Journey
Around the village of Chedzoy in the Somerset Levels is a 3.2km nature walk with five distinctly different habitats, each area has been created with plants and trees carefully selected for the properties they bring to the environment. Along the route you will find more than 100 different species of plants and trees, easy access gates, resting areas, signage, walking guides and plant ID labels.
The walk was created by a passionate group of volunteers know as the Chedzoy Fair Share Project Team and funded by Somerset County Council’s Climate Emergency Community Fund.
Watch this space for more news on what the team are up to next….
Join the Facebook Group for more information
The Nature Walk
Flower Lanes – Zone 1
Along Front Street you will find many edible and sensory plants in: • The Herbary
• Edible polyculture areas
• Perennial flower verges
Meeting Place – Zone 2
Within the Playing Fields is a birch and alder micro-wood and a massive new wildlife hedge. There is a delicious selection of raspberries to munch on whilst you lay in the middle of the woven willow dome. Look out for the Hedgehog House under the Bug Hotel.
Whittling Wood – Zone 3
Behind the church is a place for reflection, snuggled in by the big old beech tree is a copse planted with wild cherry, silver birch, rowan and hazel. This is a transitional wood that will go on a 5-7 year rotation providing: • Stakes for hedge laying
• Material for woodland crafts
• Small mammal habitats
Whilst the wood establishes, the ground has been utilised with spring bulbs and perennial flowers.
Community Orchard – Zone 4
On Greens Corner a new orchard has been planted with locally grown heritage fruit trees. Each tree has been carefully selected to ensure it has a partner in its pollination group and collectively they provide a long pollen and fruiting period. With apple, plum, pear, greengage and shipova to choose from there’s something for everyone. Look out for Clapp’s Favourite and the Bloody Ploughman!
Foraging Lanes – Zone 5
Coming back towards the village are 3 new horse chestnut trees filling in the gaps, a fabulous native foraging hedge, a bank of holly trees and interspaced alder that will capture nitrogen into the soil, feeding the trees around them. Look out for the juniper bank and the stand of sweet chestnut trees on the homeward stretch…
What’s next?
Nesting sites
We will be erecting 25 bird boxes around the route, partly funded by EDF Energy.
