During the year Forest Harvest continued to further the charities objects by running courses; opening the Woodmill site to visitors; organising talks; designing community gardens and renting the site for other organisations to run their workshops.
These were financed through course fees; donations; grants; and product sales.
• Courses – Three courses this year were organised for the charity Burton Mind to improve mental health by reconnecting with Nature. These were a 12-week course in the Spring followed by 4 week and 8 week course in the Summer. Feedback to MIND showed that all participants witnessed improvement to their mental health.
• Forest Harvest also ran two Plant Propagation workshops for the local villages.
• Due to Covid there were no organised open days for Woodmill but individual groups were regularly shown around the forest garden at their request.
• Talks – Forest Harvest was glad to give a Talk on “Nature Knows Best” at the Lichfield Eco-fest to Celebrate the Great Big Green Week where we also had a stall to give out information.
• We are involved still with the Dovehouse Community Garden offering volunteers for their working parties and help on the Committee. This year we completed the rebuilding of a greenhouse donated by a neighbour of the Dovehouse site.
• In March work started in the Festival Garden helped with a grant from Severn Trent Water to plant willow for community activities in the future and reduce the chance of flooding along the brook; start the planting of a round mini forest garden and the meadow with yellow rattle to improve biodiversity.
• Forest Harvest designed a two-acre site for a Tutbury Community Group, this is an ongoing project.
• With the help of a grant from Veolia part of the Woodmill site is turning into a cut flower garden as part of the Community Blooms project. This offers a range of activities for those who have finished the ecotherapy courses and for local communities in East Staffordshire.
• Two child groups now use the site for regular forest schools and home-schooling sessions. This has helped Forest Harvest reach a younger audience and develop the Woodmill site further to make it more suitable as a place of welcome for all.
• The Arts Council funded 3 dance and movement workshops in the woods at Woodmill to finish a successful year of activities during a challenging period.
