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.
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.
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.
Smells like spring is in the air!
ViviLnk
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!
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.
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.
Well this weekend was the RSPB garden bird watch, did you take part? Did you know that here on campus since 1982 we have had over 80 different species on site from Red kites to robins, 20 of these species are in severe decline and are now on the red list with 17 species being in moderate decline on the amber list. Have a look around campus who knows what you might see.
Back after Christmas and its good to see that despite all the building and digging up around on campus the badgers on the main campus seem pretty content, there are at least four from the same Sett.
ViviLnk
ViviLnk
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Grounds Department.
