Wildflower Verges Update - May 2022

Spring is sprung and the grass is rizz! That is particularly true of the roadside verges in the Wildflower Verges project. All the verges are literally blossoming, and the grasses and other plants are now quite tall and many are in flower.

Residents will no doubt have seen the fine displays of daffodils on all three of the pilot sites earlier in the year. These are all garden varieties - the only wild daffodils are on the Beachwood site - but we seem to have had a particularly good show this year. Whether this a consequence of the new management regime on the verges is impossible to tell as yet; there are so many other factors involved, such as winter temperatures, amount of sunlight etc. Further research will, we hope, provide some answers.

Now that the daffodils are over, the spring and early summer wild flowers are in bloom. Cow parsley is doing very well at the Black Dyke Road sites and we have had dandelions, ramsons, daisies and celandines in profusion. Look out for Yellow Rattle, with its small yellow flowers - this is one of the species we planted last autumn and is particularly important because it is a parasite on grasses. It helps to reduce the height of the tall grasses and open up the sward so that some of the lower-growing flowers can thrive - otherwise, they get shaded out.

We are keeping the verges under observation and the plants flowering are being recorded. This will give us data we can use for future planting and management and help us decide when to cut the verges later in the year - this has to be a balance between keeping the vegetation under control and allowing the annual flowers time to set their seed and drop them into the soil for next year’s blooming.

Now that the fallen trees have been removed from the Beachwood and the stumps ground out, we are looking at how to improve the site to encourage more wild flowers. We will seed the bare ground left by the contractor’s machinery with our wild flower mix soon, then plant some plug plants (again, local native plants) in the autumn. The Council is also planning the planting of replacement trees for those that were lost to Storm Arwen; they will include native species and fruit trees. We are looking at apple and damson for the latter - this seems appropriate since the site was once the orchard for Beachwood House.

The beech hedge by the recycling bins in Black Dyke Road is now in leaf. Growth will not be huge this year because the plants are busy establishing their root systems but most of them have survived the winter. The bushes are guaranteed so any which do not survive in their first year will be replaced free of charge.

We are now thinking of how to extend the work on the verges into the second phase and are working closely with the AONB in this planning process.

Finally, we will soon be erecting some information boards at the verge sites. The cost of this has been met with a very generous grant from the Barnes Trust, to whom the Verges group extend their sincere thanks.

Councillor Steve Porter
Arnside Verges Working Group