Now here is a plant you may see on Campus in the buffer areas around the perimeter fencing or in the meadows on site one and four the pyramid orchid one of two orchids we have around campus.
Brunel Hedgehog
While continuing with the bat survey came across the Brunel hedgehog queuing at the calisthenics bars, being shy it trundled off into the shrubbery nearby, lookout for our hedgehog as they tend to have no road sense.
Tree felling
Had to take down a couple of old white willows which had been pollarded in the past, badly rotted at the base so a high risk of failure ,not good when leaning over into the car park. Checked them out for any bat roosts luckily they were all clear so could be felled without too much hassle, replanting programme already planned.
Wild flowers
So what’s happened here? Well the grass area was really struggling next to Mary Secole building so we’ve scarified it then sown ,with some top dressing as a carrier, an annual wildflower mix to add a bit of colour and of course food for the bees, butterflies and other such insects. Hopefully we should have a mix of colours this summer, also look out for a number of other areas sown with wild flower mixes across the campus.
Summer planting
The summer bedding is growing at a fair old pace at the moment in the greenhouse(3,000+ plants) especially with the great bank holiday weather! good to see the sun for a change though it does make it difficult to harden off the plants with no cold frames to use and a rather dilapidated greenhouse with poor ventilation, still planting out should be OK around the end of May.
Plant of the Month
See if you can spot this plant around campus, botanical name of Fritillaria meleagris sometimes known as the snakes-head fritillary they are in a few locations.
Wildlife
Smells like spring is in the air!
ViviLnk
Snow again!
The spring flowering bulbs don’t know what’s going on with the sudden change in temperature and neither do the trees coming in to bud, even the overflowing guttering has frozen on the trees!
weather
What a difference a week makes, this time last week we had freezing cold temperatures, snow and the river Pinn starting to freeze,-this week spring bulbs up flowering and the river flowing quite happily again.
Plant of the Month
Back by popular demand! well actually it was one request and they were being a bit sarcastic on missing the feature so here it is anyway. Iris reticulata a great little plant for this time of year ideal for containers, under trees or rockeries they come in different colours too.Plant in small groups for best effect.
