This year the parish council have worked with their grass cutting contractors to leave 16 grassy verge sites across the parish of Deddington un-mown during the months of May and June . The idea is to allow wildflowers to set seed and complete their lifecycle before being mown. Leaving these areas un-mown should really help improve the number and diversity of wildflowers we see locally over time, provide more nectar for insects and pollinators and the longer grass will also provide valuable habitat for other wildlife.
In order to bolster support for the scheme and wildflowers, in general, we thought it would be useful to see what wildflowers we can spot over the next few months, take photos, identify and record them. It would be great to begin to build up a picture of what wildflowers occur locally. This is something you can do if out walking the dog, doing the school run or even on the way home from the pub!
You may also want to survey a grassy verge, maybe outside your own home or near where you live, during May using Plant Life’s ‘Every Flower Counts’ methodology. It’s easy and it will not take very long to carry out the survey 40 mins max. You can register here to see the methodology, download the record sheet and plant identification sheet. It’s straightforward and easy to involve kids too. No doubt we will get people talking when they see us out measuring sites, throwing balls about and counting flowers . If you submit your results via the plantlife website, this way we will be able to get a record of species and a nectar count for each site.
When you have completed the survey and/or made a note of wildflowers you’ve seen then send the results on to Tammy on tammy.marrett@gmail.com, so the results can be collated. DEN will then share the information with the parish council and publicise what we have learned.