If you have visited the Cathedral or live nearby and have wandered past you have probably noticed that over the last few years things have looked decidedly unkempt at times in the paddock next to the Cathedral. It used to look a little like a mown golf course with a few grave stones in the middle, but not any more. We are delighted that we have been able to dedicate this fairly sizeable area of land to wildflowers, grasses, insects and all other wildlife that thrives along with it, managing it as a meadow to encourage biodiversity, chalk land plants and a much needed link for other similar areas across the city.
Even after one year of keeping things wild, there was a notable increase in insect life and many special plants already native to the area reappearing and spreading. Luckily for us gardeners we also have a links across the city too, with much needed help from experts who have surveyed the site for wildflowers and also continued to support us with advice, seed sharing and planting from other sites in and around the city, encouraging plants that thrive in the chalky flinty soil. Some of the wildflowers may be diminutive, hard to spot or the sort of thing you may like to pull out of your garden flower borders, but many of these provide essential larval food plants and nectar for many other insects.
As we have managed the meadow we have seen many more pollinators as well as butterflies unseen before, among these are the small blue, Meadow brown, Gatekeeper and Hummingbird Hawk moth that likes to feed from the Lady’s Bedstraw plant that you can see as a yellow haze amongst the grasses. There are also many more spiders who love the grassy areas especially many Wasp spiders in the late summer as well as ground nesting bees. As part of our planning for the future, we also aim to increase the number of flowering native trees for early blossom for pollinators and great for nesting birds and other mammals too. You can also see branches and limbs of our veteran trees rotting under the trees, providing a vibrant habitat for all wildlife and fungi. Soon we hope to conduct surveys for other species, including the moths, beetles and spiders.
Please remember to enjoy the meadow from the fence line only, unless specifically given permission as it is a sensitive area and we have our resident pair of peregrine falcons trained to swoop at an alarming speed over un-invited wanderers.
