Devon Pollinator Week keeps team buzzy!
East Devon got busy during the recent Devon Pollinator Week (July 11-19) by making green spaces irresistible to insects.
Street scene parks and gardens team have sown wildflower meadows in Sidmouth, Seaton and Exmouth bringing colour to our streets and nectar for our pollinating insects. The seed is sown late May, early June and will flower over the coming weeks. A perennial mix has also been sown in the meadow area of The Byes in Sidmouth.
The council has also begun to plant community orchards which provide wonderful blossom in early spring for pollinating insects. This continues the good work undertaken to establish or restore orchards on existing nature reserves.
At Seaton Wetlands the countryside team are about to embark on the creation of a wildlife-friendly garden. The area known as Stafford Marsh, where thousands of school children visit each year to undertake field studies, already has a pond, compost heaps, log piles and bug hotels. Here recycled materials will be used to create raised flower beds, full of native flowers that will prove irresistible to bees, butterflies and moths.
This project will compliment the work already carried out on nature reserves across East Devon; from the grazed heathland at Trinity Hill Local Nature Reserve, to the recently restored meadow at Delderfield Community Nature Reserve in Sidmouth. At both of these sites, grazing is a vital component in getting the management right for the flowers that our pollinators love so much. Couple this with careful woodland management, at sites like Holyford Woods and Knapp Copse, where woodland thinning and the creation of glades allows light in to the wood, and you provide a great variety of habitats and flowering species for the small creatures that make the world buzz round.
The message is simple; our planet cannot survive without the small things in this world, and in your own garden, no matter how big or small, you can help.
For more information please call Countryside Team on 01395 517 557 or email countryside@eastdevon.gov.uk
