Mayfly garden welcomes experts and a new MP

The Mayfly, burgeoning coffee and cultural High Street hub, is turning some derelict land into, well, something else. A community garden? A mini-wildlife reserve? Butterfly haven? Part of a grand scheme to upgrade the whole of the cliff-face? It'll be up to those who get involved, said Piers Colby, le patron of The Mayfly and community catalyst.

On what had turned out to be  General Election Day, The Mayfly Garden Group welcomed Dr Ian Bedford and Dannny Suggit, Production Manager of PlantGrow Ltd

Bedford knows all about making the most of small urban spaces for wildlife and people, and Danny is a local organic mulch specialist, who has kindly offered to supply their award winning mulch to the garden free of charge. 

They both fielded many questions, sitting in The Mayfly's gloriously eccentric café front room, from using east-facing walls to the migration habits of red admiral butterflies. Later, while standing in what had been the floors of demolished cottages, discussing mulch and brambles and planters, sure enough, a red admiral popped in to warm its wings.

The Mayfly event attracted Jess Asato, at that moment a prospective MP, and now elected. Jess and her husband enjoyed a coffee and chatted to many, and generally gave it a big thumbs-up. You can spot her in the Facebook pics.

The visitors were later taken to The Land of Hope and Dreams, aka North Lowestoft Men's Shed in Denmark Road. Members of the Shed proudly showed off their massive bramble patch. Ian made several very useful suggestions – hazel and hawthorn in particular. “You've got some good trees. But the more the better” said the good doctor. He also warned against the shed's cherished idea of a mini-orchard – apples and similar can get you into all sorts of insect-management problems, he suggested. But organic mulch could feature in a couple of areas speculatively demarcated as cultivation spots.

Our guests departed, braced for negotiating Lowestoft's multiple roundabouts.

In the meantime, Tim Cross' Lowestoft Studio Ceramics students were setting up an exhibition of their work in the back room, from which you can see the sea, and right now enjoy the marvellous work on display, some of it as singular as The Mayfly itself.

John Ellerby