Southern Town Park, 16th June 2018

By Andrew -
Fourteen of us gathered in the car park in Lambrick Way. We were pleased to welcome a new member, Elaine. For once we were not going to pull up Himalayan Balsam, which made a change. Our task was to weed the wild flower patch, which we had sown in March with seed donated by Kew Gardens. This was an extension of last year’s patch.

We also needed to pick up litter, which is abundant in Southern Town Park, though in Summer much of it is hidden by vegetation. We wanted to cut back overhanging brambles and pull nettles from around the fences. Last year’s wild flower patch was in full bloom, with red campion, ox eye daisies, poppies and one of the umbellifer family growing very tall. This year’s patch was also growing well, though not yet in flower. We needed to pull up nettles, goose grass and thistles, and Matt and Kevin set to work to slash the surrounding nettles and long grass.

By the end of the morning the wild flower patch looked much clearer and we could see it was attracting insects. As well as bees, we saw a number of damsel flies and two small skipper butterflies, We collected several bags of litter and the path and fence edges looked much tidier.  
-Eleanor



Weeding the wild flower patch.

“Before” photo of last year’s patch.

Lesley pulling up nettles.

Matt slashing nettles.

Tea Break.

“After” photo of last year’s wild flower patch.

“After” photo of this year’s patch.

Common Blue Damselfly (photo by Michelle).


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