Surprised? No Mowers? Giving Nature a Chance in Radipole Gardens
Giving Nature a Chance
If you follow our blog, you’ll probably know that we’ve just held this year’s Wildlife & Wellbeing event in the gardens.
Though most of the comments we received at our engagement tent were full of complements, one or two people approached me to ask why the grass hadn’t been cut as it was looking rather long and unkempt.
As I explained to them, there is a very good reason for that… two in fact.
The first has to do with our famous crocus walk that draws in hundreds of visitors every year.
As any gardener will know, you can’t cut crocus foliage back until it has died right down.
If you did then it robs their corms tucked away in the ground below of any nourishment that would be had from their leaves.
While they are still green they are busy manufacturing food, necessary for healthy growth. It gives the clumps of corms energy to bulk up and spread along with any seeds that form.
A second very good reason, particularly in today’s climate of almost wholesale wildlife habitat desecration, is that early spring summer wild flowers are vital to insect population. It gives them a fighting chance at a time when their food is scarce.
If you sit and watch the long grass on a sunny day it positively hums with activity. all manner of things flying, crawling, burrowing, it’s all going on.
Of course that carries right on up the food chain, no bugs…no birds etc.
So instead of grabbing that phone or tapping furiously on your keyboard to complain about the why hasn’t the gardener taken his mower to the long grass, just take that opportunity to chill, sit back and watch wonderful mother nature does what she does best.
The mowers will be back out in the middle of May so enjoy Radipole’s magical wild flowers and bug life while you still can.
It may actually surprise you to know that all of Weymouth’s parks and gardens have their own particular strengths that the parks department deliberately work towards improving.
Sandsfoot has stunning views, fantastic history in the form of a Henrician castle and green slopes, perfect for chilling with a cuppa whist watching your children enjoying wild and imaginative play, no need for any artificial equipment there.
Greenhill of course is known for its immaculate green swards and neat rows of bedding plants, simply stunning of course, but were you to compare their wildlife bio diversity to Radipole’s we’d come out winners hands down.
And that is our strength and message. Radipole is a park and garden for wildlife and as we know nature nurtures, making it a perfect haven for people.
As to the second question we were asked…well, that’s slightly more complex and out of our hands so to speak. It referred to the speed of the cars on Radipole Park Drive.
As much as we would love it to be lower, we have tried in the past to get it reduced, but neither we nor the parks department have any control over that whatsoever.
Just maybe 2012 gave us the perfect solution though…
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1 Comment
Tim Beer 5 years ago
I do the same with the big grass area in front of the house, no mowing until well into June though. So much more to come yet, May is too early.