Natures' Corner

The darling wildflowers of May.

As I write this, we have just a month to go now; the front lawn is so colourful at the moment, we wouldn’t dare mow it!

Bluebells, Daisies, beautiful light purple Cuckoo flowers along with the magical tall Aquilegias, mixed in with Dandelions and pink Oxalis with stunning Forget-me-not too.

But this is just the second wave, the first appearing around March comprising Crocuses and Snowdrops with Hyacinth, as well as Daffodils and the bunches of Tete a Tete.

Yes, we haven’t yet mowed our lawn this year and will once again, probably for the fourth year on the trot, leave the dreaded machine in the shed ‘til May is out, only then will I cast a clout and begin the weekly regime of mowing the lawn.

Of course, this isn’t just idleness on my part; as a result of letting it go during the Spring, we noticed an abundance of healthy wildflowers appearing amongst the lawn grass which we would otherwise never see.

In particular, the Crocuses planted some 15 years ago always grew sparsely until letting the leaves wither naturally without mowing seemed to give them a newfound strength. Good numbers of nice, tight clumps of this early colour increased, providing food for the first insect arrivals, as they are year on year.

Of course, the Bees love it, especially the solitary Bees which are actually quite cute under closer inspection; harmless little creatures that live in the lawn in tiny holes which are well hidden. These don’t like mowers at all and hate any kind of grass treatment which can kill them.

These days, many Councils including Denbighshire are laying off the strimmers and mowers on some of the verges, roundabouts and green open spaces, as much as anything, it saves money, but there is an underlying trend towards leaving well alone, from which we all benefit, including our essential pollinators, as long as road safety isn’t compromised.

Dyserth Community Council are promoting and actively pursuing development of a wildflower meadow on a large plot of land they own in lower Dyserth. Along with Dyserth Environmental Group and with help from the Woodland Trust who have donated 1400 hedging trees to the cause, completely free of charge. Thorncliffe Builders merchants have allowed the use of a dumper to transport mulch to protect the hedging in the early stages of growth and local farmer Lennis has been very generous in giving of his time and mowing the grassy area to allow wildflowers to thrive. The hedging has been planted by some Council members, D.E.G members and volunteers from the local community including ladies from Dyserth W.I.

It won’t happen overnight but will definitely enhance biodiversity on a patch of land that essentially may well become a memorial garden for the village in the future; in the meantime, the Community Council will manage it in a nature friendly way.

As an aside, we have noticed the numbers of insect splatter on the car windscreen and Motorcycle visor has increased this Spring, it would be great to think that the policies on allowing more wildflowers on verges and a more sympathetic attitude towards leaving things be for a while is contributing to a tangible increase in the insect population. ...Dave Parry.