Planting Wildflowers in your garden

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Restoring our wildflower grasslands

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Glorious Cotswold Grasslands is an exciting and ambitious project which aims to create the largest network of wildflower rich Jurassic limestone grassland in the country – around 100 hectares in total, over three years.  In the 1930s, 40% of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was covered in wildflower-rich grassland; today less than 1.5% remains.  This habitat was once abundant with beautiful wildflowers, and supported a vast diversity of wildlife, including butterflies, bees, bats, birds, and many other animals. Sadly, agricultural intensification and changing land management practices has led to the loss of almost all this grassland.  Over half of the country’s flower-rich Jurassic limestone grassland is found in the Cotswolds.  Glorious Cotswold Grasslands aims to reverse the decline in these habitats, by restoring and creating wildflower grasslands throughout the Cotswolds AONB. T he Cotswolds Conservation Board has been awarded a grant of ove...
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UK Biodiversity is still declining - but we can all help change that

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A report just published by the UK Government's own Environmental Audit Committee confirms that the  UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries in a world where a million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction. A   't oothless Government policy and insufficient targets to stem the tide of biodiversity los s' mean the UK  has the worst nature record amongst all G7 countries.  T he ambition may be there, but a poorly-mixed cocktail of ambitious targets, superficial strategies, funding cuts and lack of expertise is severely limiting any tangible progress. There will be a new opportunity to challenge this when a strengthened CEE (Climate and Emergency Bill) gets its Second Reading in September with the cross party support of over 100 MPs. We should take every opportunity to lobby our MPs give it their support. So what can we do personally to help improve wildlife?  Well we've made a good start - just look at the earlier postings on this...
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Stunning wildflower display at Oak Grange

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Can you believe this was a building site in 2019! Fortunately the planners designated some of the area to be seeded with wildflowers. The landscape contractors are now following the management plan and not mowing for the growing season. We now have a lovely sea of oxeye daisies. However they are not alone, over the last 4 weeks I have been recording all the flowering plants I spot when walking the dog. These are just snaps fromthe phone, I have identified 28 different species! Some obviously were in the seed mix, some were already here and a couple are the native hedge. Such a wonderful mix to help our insects.  More species of plants are budding up and hopefully will feed the insects over the summer and autumn.  It has been quite challenging working but well worth the effort. It is a wonderful sight to see, but please remember not to pick the wildflowers. The management of the Oak Grange estate is funded by the residents alone. The Glorious Cotswold Grassland project has kind...
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