The year began with sowing wildfower seed on three of our wild areas: the New and Wavy Beds in Millennium Park and the Cotes Road verge near the roundabout.  We used a perennial and annual mix to give colour this year and a longer lasting plant for future years.

The annual species count, which indicates the effectiveness of our intervention, happened in June. It was great to see flowers like the corn cockle, corn chamomile and cornflower brightening up the Cotes Road verge, resulting from the spring seed sowing. It is hoped that these annuals will set seed and gain a firm footing here.

When NatureSpot surveyed the original Cotes Road verge in 2022, it was at least four times the size it is now. With 32 species, it was considered to have a good diversity and provided a valuable habitat. However, it was too large to manage and sadly had to be reduced to its present size. Consequently, the species count dropped, although has increased over the last two years; we will strive to continue this trend.

The Wavy Bed looked great earlier in the summer and supported an increased number of insects. This is great news for wildlife as insects are a source food and play an important role in pest control, decomposition and pollination.

We will begin the annual cutting of wildflower areas and gathering arisings in the autumn so if any of you would like a fresh-air workout and help to improve our village biodiversity, watch out for our adverts for volunteers, or email Alison Rushton at WildAboutBarrow@gmail.com.

Alison Rushton