Visit to The Great Fen
Last week I enjoyed a visit to The Great Fen, located between Huntingdon and Peterborough, to discover more about the Water Works project. Similar to New Life on the Old West, the Water Works project is a 3-year project which is delivered by multiple partner organisations (including the Wildlife Trust BCN, Natural England and the Environment Agency).
The project aims to develop a more sustainable future for fenland resources by trialling ‘wet farming’. Wet farming refers to the productive use of wet (or rewetted) peatlands including growing commercially interesting crops with management practices maintaining and encouraging peat accumulation. Did you know – peatland covers only 3% of the world’s land surface but holds 25% of global soil carbon? They are an incredible carbon store!
Photo: Bulrush planted in one of the trial beds.
My visit provided me with a tour of the site and an opportunity to discover the work which is now well underway. Walking along the trial beds I had no idea what crops I was looking at and I certainly was unaware of their potential (and innovative!) uses. One trail bed was planted with bulrush which can be used for insulation for homes or jackets, compostable plates and as an alternative material for packaging. Other crops include reed, wild celery, meadowsweet, hemp agrimony and sweet manna grass with each having a diverse use including for medicinal purposes, a food source and even microchips!
Photo: After the tour, I was able to volunteer to plant some Gypsywort plug plants into one of the beds. In total we planted well over 200 plants during the visit.
The key plant, which recently arrived to the site, is Sphagnum moss. There is a lot of excitement surrounding this rather attractive small green moss – it has been said that this could be a key player in helping with agricultural emissions and climate change. Sphagnum moss has an interesting historical medical use for bandages as well as in nappies during world war 1. This is due to the moss being naturally antiseptic and it can absorb 10 times more fluid compared to cotton wool. What is even more fascinating is the ability to protect soil by keeping it moist and actually being able to grow soil (!!) all while trapping carbon. The ability to trap carbon has the potential to be of significant benefit to cities in the future by using Sphagnum for living walls which purify the air.
There has been growing conversations surrounding the use of compost which contains peat. Thanks to the research being carried out, including here in The Great Fen, one alternative could be Sphagnum moss. Sphagnum can out compete weeds and doesn’t require a fertiliser and it continuously grows back even when the top is harvested. The harvested moss can be dried and milled to create a peat free compost. This can then be used to grow seedlings or vegetables.
There certainly are some exciting projects happening in Cambridgeshire – it feels great to be a part of it!
If you would like to help on the Water Works project visit their website or to volunteer more locally check out the upcoming opportunities available on the New Life on the Old West project.
Photo: trial beds at The Great Fen.