Archive for category: News

Around 50 residents attended the annual parish meeting on Wednesday and heard chairman Piers Spence give his review of a busy year on the parish council. PC John Lonsdale updated the community on local police and crime initiatives, and Cllr Julian Brazil brought news of changes to the make-up of Devon County Council following the recent elections. But the undoubted highlight of the evening (apart from the free glass of wine, that is!) was an informative presentation by Mark Skinner, of South Dartmoor Community Energy, on what householders can do to makes their homes warmer and more comfortable this winter. The take-away from the meeting was that every resident of the South Hams is entitled to a free home energy survey, which can be booked by getting in touch with SDCE here. Don’t leave it too long before you book yours!

Making your own compost is a cheap and natural way of returning nutrients to the soil to support the growth of healthy plants and help your garden thrive.  It also puts unavoidable kitchen and garden waste, such as fruit and vegetable peelings and prunings, to good use and avoids the need to spend money on store-bought compost.

If you have a garden or a communal green space, whether or not you have food waste collection, home composting benefits both your pocket and the environment.

A 2022 study in Devon found that we are still throwing away huge amounts of food waste. Nearly a third (28.2%) of our black bin waste is made up of food waste, and a further 6.8% comes from garden waste. Some of that waste, such as uncooked fruit and vegetable peelings, flowers, twigs and dead leaves, could be composted at home.

Home composting requires a composting receptacle ideally placed in a sunny spot in the garden. You can buy reduced priced compost bins (Devon residents only) or make your own from old pallets. Sleek or rustic, they both do the same job and that’s to create a warm environment for organic matter such as grass cuttings, plant prunings and vegetable peelings to rot down into a nutrient rich compost.

Making compost is like baking a cake – add the right ingredients, cook at the right temperature and hey presto! Perfect results every time! Ideally, a compost bin will have a 50/50 mix of greens and browns:

It’s important to only compost uncooked food scraps and avoid adding meat or fish as you may end up attracting unwanted visitors to your garden. If you want to compost all food waste at home, including cooked food, meat and fish, you’ll need a closed system such as the Green Johanna or Green Cone, both of which available at a reduced price to Devon residents. Find out more here.

Did you know that you can compost tissues, pet fur, nail clippings and the contents of your vacuum cleaner?  Basically, anything that once lived can be composted! This handy step by step guide will help you get started and includes some insightful video tutorials by Devon composting guru Nicky Scott.

Your compost will be ready in 9-12 months and should be rich, dark and crumbly with an earthy smell. Use it in plant beds, vegetable patches and hanging baskets to add moisture, structure and nutrients back into the soil.

If you don’t have the space for a compost bin, why not opt for a wormery? Worms are the perfect low maintenance pet and will happily munch your food waste, leaving you with a very rich soil improver and lots of nutritious liquid plant food. Find out more here.

This month’s PPG newsletter contains tips on how to manage hayfever – yes, the season’s started already! – and useful information about mental health support for local schoolchildren. Read all about it here: PPG Newsletter 7.

The latest newsletter from Chillington Patient Participation Group has news on the improvements to the surgery in Orchard Way, plus an update on Covid boosters for those aged 75 or over, and others with compromised immune systems. Get it here: PPG Newsletter 6

Keen-eyed visitors to Chillington Park will have noticed the appearance of a new grove of baby apple trees near the gate at the northern entrance to the park off Tanpits Lane. The very positive reaction to the 2024 apple tree planting at the southern boundary, next to the car park, led Chillington Community Association to ask Stokenham Parish Council for more trees, and they duly obliged with five new saplings. The trees – all classic English heritage varieties particularly suited to our lovely Devon climate – will, once established, provide apples freely to the community, and be the focus of Apple Days and Wassailing ceremonies for decades to come. This map, Chillington Grove by the Gate, shows which trees are which, and tells you a little bit about them.