Glebe Field Biodiversity Improvements

Have you seen the wonderful wildflower meadow down at Glebe Field? All that hard work seems to have paid off with the appearance of some beautiful wild flowers, including Wild Clary, Bird's-foot-trefoil; Carmine Catchfly, and my favourite the Oxeye Daisy. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the pedestrian gate to be fitted to make is easier to access, and some picnic benches so parishioners can enjoy the view. There are still some thistles, which will need removing when the ground is wetter, and the bee bank needs to be cleared again, but it looks fantastic. There were some complaints when the work was being done. Do we think we should try and extend the wildflower meadow closer to the edge of the field? What do people think of it?

Whilst there on Saturday I also managed to clear the bee bank of weeds, preparing it for the spring next year.

Luckily I chose Saturday instead of Sunday (snow!) to plant the 5 new trees (3 apple and 2 plum), replacing the 5 that had died. I've planted them closer to the border than the previous one so that it will be easier to cut the meadow for the annual hay cut in late summer.

I popped over to Glebe Field to remove some of the dead trees and check the site for weeds. There were a few thistles and stinging nettles, which I removed, but generally everything looked healthy. The hedgehog house looked good. The newest seeded patch is doing well (I suspect this patch will require weeding in March). I spoken to Adam Gallagher who will hopefully install a new pedestrian gate. Carl Gray has kindly offered to do the meadow cuts, the first being in Spring.

The weather was very kind, almost too hot, and our 2 experienced drivers (Digger Dave & Dumper Truck Darren) definitely speeded up things; we managed to degrade twice the area of the first degrading weekend in March. We managed to successfully clear most of the remaining turf and sowed seeds in front of the smaller established area (by the bee bank). Now we have to wait, and pray, for the seeds to grow. As with the first area we will need to weed out the aggressive weeds (thistles and bindweed) to allow the other wildflowers to grow. We also cleared the weeds from the bee bank. A special mention goes to Simon Rex for spending the last few weeks clearing thistles from the first area. We also tidied up the site as there had been a number of complaints. The topsoil will hopefully be collected this week, and then the aim is get some plastic to cover the huge compost heap to help speed up the breaking down process. And the hedgehog house got a new roof as the previous one had shrunk a bit :) Next stages:- more weeding!; try and establish a group of volunteers to follow the management plan; find covers for the compost heap; and more...

This coming Saturday and Sunday is another Rewilding Weekend. Digger Dave has kindly offered his services and advice. We are hiring 2 extra pieces of equipment from lessons learnt last time:- a dumper truck, for moving turf and soil around, and a flail mower, for cutting long grass. The mission this weekend is simpler, but still hard work, to cut and weed the margins & to remove as much of the remaining turf & topsoil so we can sow more wildflower meadow seeds. Please come along and help, even if only for an hour or so, and ask your friends and family. Also, if you wanted any free topsoil please bring bags to fill and take home.

We made good progress with the bee bank. The bees love to burrow into the sand, deliberately built to face the sun. Thank you to Ruth for shovelling all the sand onto the bank all on your own. We need to order some more sand as we didn't quite have enough.

Richard and Carol Cowley managed to build a hibernacula (little house with entrances going underground) at a safe social distance from the rest of the volunteers. Thank you both for your time and effort, hopefully some little visitors will move in.

Last weekend we started the second attempt at growing wildflower seeds. This time, following advice from Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, we hired a digger to remove a layer of turf and topsoil, giving the wildflower seeds a better chance of growing, with less competition from the grass.