With such a lot of our wildflower turf going to local councils to be laid in public areas, we have begun to notice a common problem emerging. It happened in Cardiff and it has happened in the village of North Waltham. Can you guess what it is?
With more emphasis on biodiversity, reducing global warming and creating areas for bees in public areas, local councils have begun choosing our wildflower turf as a way to address these issues and therefore tick some relevant boxes.
Wildflower Turf is great for bees and butterflies, flowers all summer long and doesn’t need cutting until the autumn, so as well as ticking lots of boxes related to biodiversity it also ticks a few boxes connecting with the cost of maintenance. And here lies the common error.
It is quite disappointing when the money has been spent on such a beautiful product only to find that the turf has been mown to make it all nice and short and smart. Sadly this means that with the present regime it isn’t going to flower and become the wildflower meadow that was planned. However, all is not lost. If the mowing ceases, then the wildflowers will have a chance to get going again and flower this season.
The moral of the tale is to remember to instruct the parks department and especially the guys who actually do the mowing , that they are not to mow the wildflower turf. A good plan that works in Eastrop Park, Basingstoke where wildflower turf was laid to provide a “naturescape”, is to put up an information board explaining about the wildflower meadow and the wildlife that will be attracted to it.
If the area is quite small such as that at North Waltham pond, then a simple sign requesting “please do not mow beyond this point”, might be just as effective but sadly not as instructive.