Grass verges planted with naturalised bulbs
Over the years the Grounds Maintenance Team has planted thousands of spring flowering bulbs mostly (daffodil and crocus) throughout the borough. Most of these bulbs are planted in drifts providing a beautiful display of colour during the early spring months. After the blooms have faded the grass is left uncut to allow the leaves to continue to photosynthesize and then die back naturally returning energy to the bulb in preparation for flowering again the following year. This means that the grass in these areas will get longer than in the surrounding areas and will only then be cut and removed in June. This has the added benefit of allowing early flowering wild flowers to flourish in these same areas boosting the borough’s biodiversity.
Road side naturalistic area
As part of our biodiversity action plan a number of verges and areas around the borough are left uncut to allow rare wildflowers such as orchids to flourish and provide food for a variety of insects. These areas are cut once in the late summer/autumn to prevent course grasses from taking over. They include:
- Tollhouse Meadow, Chineham
- Crabtree Plantation
- Down Grange Meadow
- Old Down
- The Knowlings,
- Bere Hill
- Wildlife Area, Eastrop Park
- The Lip, War Memorial Park
- The Mill Field
- Garrett Close, Kingsclere
