Since we started work on the View Garden area alongside Napier Miles Road a number of people have asked what we were going to plant there. Our initial ambition was only to get on top of the undergrowth that was threatening the wall, but ongoing work allowed us to think more ambitiously. Over the following months, one of our volunteers, Mike, has been diligently forking through the whole area getting rid of roots and breaking up the ground ahead of a planned seeding of the area as wildflower meadow. He was joined last month in a final push to get the ground prepared for sowing.
Because of the wet weather this year things had been delayed a little, but we had a good turnout of volunteers on Saturday 13th of May to dig over the whole area again and get rid of the last of the nettle and bramble roots that would have quickly undone any work on the new planting.
By the end of the day we’d managed to dig and rake-over most of the area, but not quite all. Everything was finally polished off the following weekend and a specialist mix of wildflower meadow, and hedge mix for the shadier areas, was sown. The weather since proved providential, and the seeds were quickly watered in by the rain, with seeds already starting to germinate just a week later!
Thank you to all our volunteers on this, and thanks to Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston Wind Turbine Fund for grant funding the seed. We’ll try and keep you update with the results of this project as it develops.
