We have been busy at Little Satmar Holiday Park this year working towards the ‘Home Sweet Home’ challenge. It has been an enjoyable initiative to take part in and below we have summarised the projects we have been doing to provide new habitats for our wildlife.

Back in autumn 2021 we planned our new eco plot, which was prepared and seeded with wildflowers. The plot now also contains two bug hotels, a wildlife water source and is bordered by log rounds. It really came to fruition in early summer with a mass of poppies, oxeye daisies and foxgloves. These have been a haven for bees, butterflies, dragonflies and many birds.

Our original eco plot has also been carefully managed and added to, with extra planting that includes salvias, hebes and lavender. The plot also has its own water pools and woodpile plus a newly constructed hibernatum. The plot is very popular with our guests and we have been very lucky to have customers who own a neighbouring holiday home help us maintain it.

Five new handmade hedgehog homes have been sited on the park. This has been part of a scheme we devised to invite customers to adopt a home, keep a water source filled and monitor any hedgehog activity for us. Unfortunately, we have had no reports of hogs using the homes as yet, although we know they are present on the park.

A new grass set aside picnic area was introduced earlier in the year, adding approximately 500 square metres of grassland habitat to the park. The area also includes log rounds as well as 3 insect hotels. The aim is for this area to be a permanent fixture on the park for both guests and wildlife to enjoy.

Four handmade bird boxes have been added to those already on the park and a bee hotel has been constructed and embedded in a grass bank.

In addition to the above the park has three new trees planted as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.

All of our projects are marked by new signs which carry a QR code for our guests to scan for interpretation. As advised on our last audit we have committed to use perennial planting on the whole and use peat free compost.

We continue to recycle as much as we possibly can when carrying out our project work and look forward to choosing a new challenge soon!