Can You Feel Spring Stirring, A New Season at Common Flora

Happy New Year from all of us at Common Flora. As we step into 2026, it feels like the land itself is doing what we are doing, staying warm, gathering strength and quietly preparing for what comes next.

Here at Common Flora we are replenishing our stocks of love and giddiness for nature and humanity. This is the season for noticing. For pausing. For listening to what the ground is already telling us.

In 2026 we will be running with our Abundant Life project as it becomes the Biodiversity Toolkit for Farmers. Backed by DEFRA, we will be creating an easy to follow, step by step guide for farmers to strengthen links with their local communities, if those links are not already there. From there we return to the simple, old fashioned tools of ecology. Transects, a line of string. Quadrats, four wooden sticks tied into a square. Small, practical acts that reveal what biodiversity is already present.

All the data gathered will be uploaded to common online platforms, giving farmers a clear baseline they can return to in the years ahead, a way of checking in with the land and seeing how things shift and grow over time.

We will be working with farmers we already know, as well as meeting new ones across the south west. Our brilliant team of Citizen Scientists will be invited to join us again, and we will be recruiting more people who are curious, committed and keen to get involved. We will be working once more with our friends at the Nature Friendly Farming Network and Pollenize, and also with new partners through the Farm Carbon Calculator Toolkit.

This year we will also continue to build relationships with schools, colleges and community groups, offering free sessions for those who want to come and spend time with us. These visits are about learning to love nature even more, guided by our passionate and experienced session leaders, and shaped to fit the needs of each group. If you know of a group that would like to join us, we would love to hear from you.

So for now, in these early weeks of the year, we are planning and looking forward to the next adventure. It feels less like rushing ahead and more like setting out on a long walk, paying attention to the small signs along the way.

Have you seen them yet. Periwinkle flowering. Hazel buds swelling. Goosegrass is clinging on. A mushroom holding its ground. An asplenium fern staying green. Bedstraw waiting patiently. Quiet reminders that the wheel is turning once more.

The sun is coming back.

Come and join us.