Garrya eliptica
Look out for the green catkin like racemes of Garrya elliptica providing new year interest on campus, sometimes known as the silk tassle bush.
Category Archives: Grounds maintenance
Campus news
Burst water main on Friday confused one of our young swans with a new pond suddenly appearing !
Meadows cutting
To maintain and enhance the biodiversity across Site one meadows it is essential to control the dominant plant and aggressive grass species. This is done by carrying out a suitable cutting and collecting regime twice a year which helps to reduce the nutrient level in the soil profile ,promotes a wider variety of wild flowers […]
Hedge cutting
Pruning back of some of our boundary hedges has started now often the work needs to be carried out during quieter times such as over the weekends. Most of the work is carried out using the battery powered hedge cutters, loppers and secateurs – quite a challenge with the amount the University owns.
Wildlife- Stag beetles
Do keep an eye out for our stag beetles on site, these are our largest native ground beetles and can be seen sunning themselves on walls and paths or on humid days around dusk time look out for the male, easily identified with the large mandibles (jaws) which resemble the antlers of a deer, flying about looking […]
Summer Bedding
Well its that time of year again to plant out the summer bedding and empty the greenhouse of all the plants we have been growing on for the containers etc. dotted around our campus with the warmer weather kicking in .
Spring time
With the hot spell just passed, bright sunshine and rain the bulbs around campus are flowering in abundance but do look out for the slightly more unusual plants .The chequered purple flowers of Fritillaria meleagris are flowering pretty well at the moment see if you notice them around on Site.
Landscaping
The Grounds team have been very busy this winter clearing up areas where damage has been done by the numerous projects that take place on campus. The upgrade of the access road in preparation for the Learning and Teaching Centre being one example. A temporary road was created straight through a large shrubbery near the […]
Tree work
Had to take down the Robinia pseudoacacia due to basal infection and decay in the stem-not the best location either being on the main spine and leaning over Marie Jahoda building however managed to borrow the cherry picker to breakdown the tree in manageable sections. Left part of the trunk standing at the moment until […]
Bulb Planting with BWECS
Another successful planting session with the Brunel Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society, the weather actually held for a short time which gave the opportunity to get the bulbs planted.