subject: Where There Is Muck Theres Fewer Wild Flowers! [print this page] My regular readers will realize that I like being in the country side and on top of that anything to do with nature. In particular I like to name the animals and birds I come across whilst hiking, thus I never ever go out without my binoculars. Last year, for a number of reasons, I had an exceptional amount of free time to pass and experienced several guided rammbles in my local district. Some of these were specifically for bird watching, yet for a change I decided to go on some wildflower rammbles, an area in which I hadnt taken a lot of notice of previously.
On my summer rammbles I have frequently stopped to look at a meadow filled with colourful flowers but had never bothered to discover their names or their life-cycles. I can remember the day though when I thought that I ought to be ignorant no longer. On one of my common walks via the golf course (perfect havens for all sorts of flora and fauna), I came to an area that the groundsmen had allowed to become wild. It was a blaze of reds and yellows that was additionally improved by the sunlight on that charming summer afternoon. The the best part though was the flock of goldfinches that were feasting on the red seed heads, their coats precisely mirroring the colours all-around them. I was sorry for not having taken my camera and missing such a wonderful photo opportunity.
Within The british isles we have National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the bodies that oversee these put on events with wildflower rammbles to highlight the work they undertake and to educate members of the public. These trips are frequently led by experts in the field who are very educated, with help from the serious amateurs nearly every grass, sedge or flower is pointed out and recognized for the sake of the newcomers in the group. Having finished a handful of the walks I found myself becoming fascinated with the variety of wild flowers that I would as a rule unknowingly trample under foot.
I encountered the lovely purple of self-heal that in actual fact can be fairly invasive on well kept lawns and is as a result a scourge of the gardener. The tiny flowers of the variety of plants in the bedstraw family started to become familiar. Some plant species can only be identified by trying to find minute features on the leaves or flowers through a magnifying field lens, now my summertime walks mean I have one of these round my neck along with the binoculars!
I also found out about how meadows are being managed carefully to bring about a change to the falling wildflower population. Land owners are in fact being given incentives to take care of their fields in a particular way to encourage wildflowers to grow. Wild flowers tend not to do well in well-fertilized areas as they need to compete with the strong grasses that thrive in such a medium. What is needed for a happy balance is light muck-spreading, cutting only once the plants have set seed and limiting grazing cows, these at the same time help by pushing the seeds into the ground with their hooves. I additionally learned how to survey a field but that is another story, Im definitely looking forward to this spring and summer.
