Volunteering Opportunity Kensington Gardens

The Royal Parks need help to manage an area of naturally occurring heather in Kensington Gardens. This is a very unusual habitat in Central London, likely occurring as a relict of former habitats with heather germinating from the seed bank in the soil. The Royal Parks have looked after this area of heather which has expanded, but we now need to undertake some management work to help control competing self-set trees and scrub which will shade out the heather, and to manage the heather itself, ensuring its growth remains robust and hopefully spreading seed to new areas.

This will involve the following activities:
•Pulling up or cutting saplings/young trees
•Raking up leaf litter and grass thatch around the heather, and scarifying nearby grassland to encourage more seed germination
•Cutting/pruning heather and collect cuttings
•Scattering heather seed / seed capsules to scarified areas and rake these in before removal of cut material
•Bag up green waste for collection by contractors

Please visit The Royal Parks website for more information an to register your interest by clicking Here