This time last year I wrote a couple of pieces about gardening for nature. In those I touched on the wider landscapes of which our gardens are a part. In this piece I want to encourage you to think about how your garden, or your local green-space, fit into a wider picture.
Our gardens can be a haven for fauna and flora and a source of animals, insects, bird and plants that then spread out from the garden. One simple thing that many of us have already done is put up bird boxes. As I write this, many boxes in the parish are occupied and their residents will go on to increase the population of those birds in our area.
Native plants can also grow safely in our gardens and then their seeds spread outside the garden with, or without, assistance. This spring, I have been surprised to see how far cowslip plants can spread as long as they are given the chance to flower and set seed. For example, the cowslip population on Harvest Ride seems to be recovering where the grass is left or the mower blades can’t reach.
Binfield Environment Group is working with Binfield Parish Council’s contractors to reduce the regularity of cuts to certain small areas around the parish where we know there are rare wildflowers. If you live somewhere where contractors maintain the green-spaces around you, then perhaps you can talk to them about leaving areas uncut until the autumn. You may be surprised by what then grows – some wildflowers can survive for several years in the soil waiting for the right conditions.
If our gardens and green-spaces are completely surrounded by tarmac and concrete, then the flora and fauna that finds a haven there will struggle to spread. Hence, creating better connections between these green-spaces is an important part of making our parish richer in nature. Have a look at an aerial photograph of where you live. Are there green areas that can be connected to your garden or local green-space?
If you zoom out on the aerial map you can see green (and blue – rivers and ponds) corridors radiating out from the centre of Bracknell and connecting our parks and gardens to the wider countryside. All of the local councils and environment groups are working on projects to make these corridors even better for nature.
Perhaps you could talk to your neighbours about having hedgehog holes between gardens or planting groups of trees, and other native plants that feed our pollinating insects, either side of your boundaries.If you want to get more involved with our projects to join up green-spaces around Binfield then please join our mail-list or Facebook group.
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