Did you notice the pink and white colours of wildflowers appearing along some of our verges in the parish? The Bishopstone Group Parish Council has been working on the “Making space for Nature” project for some time and bringing back wildflowers to our verges is one way we can address the loss of biodiversity around us.
In an intensively farmed landscape, verges and gardens give us the opportunity to provide a much-needed home for nature. The addition of wildflowers provide food for pollinators such as bees, beetles and butterflies, these and their larvae food for birds, small mammals and so on up the food chain.
Here’s what’s been achieved in Bishopstone. Later articles will look at the other villages in our parish.
Since 2020, Councillors Rosemary Morgan and Sarah Keefe have planted wildflowers in two different areas – the banks around Bishon Lane turn and Bishopstone Church turn. Snowdrops were kindly donated by Barbara and Alan Johnson and these brighten the verges in late winter followed by daffodils telling us spring is well and truly on its way.
Importantly for our pollinators, late spring sees the flowering of red campion, foxgloves and oxeye daisies with the taller teasels and yellow flowering mullein in the background.
Let a patch of grass grow tall, maybe by a hedge or at the bottom of the garden. This will provide refuge for insects and other invertebrates in the summer. You’ll be surprised what flowers appear when the grass isn’t cut. Low growing white clover and purple self-heal are growing in many of our lawns, unseen.
In the village, the Morgans at Scaldback Cottage have created a wildflower area in their lawn and there’s a two-acre wildflower meadow at The Stonehouse owned the Keefes. In June and July, it is buzzing with bees, butterflies and moths feeding on the flowers. The burgeoning hedges around the meadow are home to many different kinds of birds. This was originally a pony paddock, little did the owners realise how much it could offer wildlife when the pasture was let to grow.
Many of us have created wildflower areas in their gardens, mostly small but together these patches provide important stepping stones for wildlife to move across the village.
Creating a pond or any sized water feature is also ideal for frogs, newts and dragonflies, extending the diversity of life that our gardens support. It’s great that hedgehogs have been seen in the western end of the village; could you help them access more gardens and therefore food by providing a hole in the fence or hedge between you and your neighbours?
We’d love to hear your stories of the wildlife you see in your garden and around the village. Help and advice is at hand – if you would like some wildflowers to boost the wildlife potential of your patch contact Sarah Keefe on 01981 590352 or Rosemary Morgan on 01981 590282.