September Improvements

Wildlife Group

September Improvements

Continuing with our theme of noticeboards we have erected another donated one, this time from the Community Council for which many thanks. The old noticeboard had been in storage but has been refurbished and installed at the Bee Loud Glade. We now have a total of 8 larger noticeboards, one small one and two information notices scattered throughout the parish. Plantings have included two Amelanchiers and a donated Bay at the Bee Loud Glade and during October we shall be adding Escallonia, Eucryphia and Euonymous – all particularly good for pollinators. Three Mahonias will follow towards the end of the month. Fruit, mainly apples but also a good crop of Medlars, are coming along nicely in the orchards. There is a lot of current interest in Quince (Cydonia) and whilst we have planted 4 they do take time to mature. Our oldest one (about 5 years) in the Community Orchard produced little fruit this year but seems healthy. This could be down to a lack of pollinators which is increasingly becoming a world-wide problem. Interestingly our most productive orchard is the one which has beehives.

Regular visitors to the Upper Orchid Field may have noticed that the meadow is shrinking! Just consider that the benches were all originally on the edge of the grass but several of them are now a few metres back as the brambles advance into the field. Ian Moody organised a start on the fight back with a mix of Environment Group and Wildlife Group members and several of the benches are now accessible again. We hope that the annual cut of the field will also involve further removal of bramble. If visitors to the field could take a pair of secateurs and snip the odd bramble, every little helps. We were also delighted to receive an offer of two teak benches in response to our appeal in the last What’s On and these will be installed down in the Bee Loud Glade.