AllSaintsChurchyard Project

Spring gave us a beautiful display of spring bulbs. Following the masses of snowdrops in January, the miniature daffodils started to bloom with the cheery yellow flowers helping brighten up the greyest of days. This included the lent-lily (Narcissus Pseudonarcissus) which are our native wild daffodils. Not quite so many flowered this year but this is probably because the foliage was mown down before it had died down naturally. This applies to all spring bulbs when you want them to flower again the following year. By allowing the foliage to die down a few weeks after flowering, all the energy is going back into the bulb. If this process is disturbed then the bulb will come up blind, meaning you will get leaves but no flowers. This is especially important for naturalizing spring bulbs into grass, allowing them to produce seed and spread themselves naturally to surrounding areas.

From March onwards the birds take on a new purpose of seeking out suitable nesting sights and then collecting materials for nest building. We are hopeful that the bird boxes located in the churchyard will have nesting birds in them again this year. Following our planting of a new native hedge in the winter, the bare root twigs we stuck in the ground are now full of lush green leaf growth. We appear to have 100% success rate. The most important thing for any newly planted hedge in its first year is to achieve a good root system so in future years the plants can seek out water for themselves especially in summer months of drought. It is tempting to allow a new hedge to grow upwards to gain maximum height as quick as possible. It may seem counter intuitive but if you cut out the leading shoot you will transfer the plants energy into root growth and cause the plant to bush outwards giving you a nice thick bushy hedge.

The large yew tree near the main pathway leading to the church, received a short back and sides. The lower branches were removed to reveal several gravestones which had not seen the light of day for a number of years. The debris will be used to create a dead hedge along the boundary where there are gaps in the living hedge. This basically involves laying the cut dead branches on the ground to form a barrier like a living hedge, which will gradually breakdown over time. Two benefits of doing this is saving a lot of time and effort to dispose of the material elsewhere and a dead hedge provides excellent habit for many wildlife creatures like beetles, small mammals and birds.

By the time you read this article there should be a riot of colour from the thousands of seeds which were sown in autumn and then topped up in spring. These should be predominantly poppies along with many other native species which the rabbits may have resisted to eat! Our aim is to provide as much pollen and nectar for our visiting bees, butterflies and other pollenating insects. Take a wander through the churchyard and take time to stop, look and listen to the nature we have all around us.

Fiona Fitzhugh