Sowing the seeds for a wildflower meadow

by Lisa Reeves

Thursday 19^th February 2015

Thu 19^th Feb 2015

Wilmslow Town Council has agreed to spend £1950 on creating a wildflower meadow in the town.

They have identified a triangle of land on Mill Street, near the A34 junction, for the location of the meadow and taken advice from Ranger Paul Hughes who has suggested a planting scheme.

Cllr Ruth McNulty explained "We chose this site because it is beside one of the gateways into Wilmslow and is visible both from the Mill Street slip road and the northbound A34. The site slopes very gently northwards and will get sufficient sun during the day to promote wild flower growth. There are pathways surrounding all three sides of the site so that people on foot will be able to enjoy a sight of the planting, which Paul has devised.

"His intention is to give a succession of flowering from Spring together with a profusion of cornfield wild flowers."

The £1950, which will be taken from the Council's special projects budget, will cover £900 for all the plug plants, £150 for seeds to scatter in between them and £900 for the planting.

Paul hughes intends to carry out the work out in the first or second week of April.

He explained "I'll be sowing seed and planting plant plugs. The seed is a cornflower annual mix and will give colour in the first year. The plant plugs are perennials - plants such as oxeye daisy, ragged robin, knapweed, cowslips and field scabious. It will give colour in future years from March to September.

"It will also be of great benefit to butterflies and bees and plants have been specially chosen for their benefit. The perennials will be dominant from the second years onwards. There will be about 2000 plugs."

Tags:: Mill Street, Wildflower Meadow, Wilmslow Town Council

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Sally Hoare

Thursday 19^th February 2015 at 11:53 am

This sounds great, lasting colour for a fairly small initial outlay. For the last few years Warrington have done this on their roundabouts and the result is lovely.

Nick Jones

Thursday 19^th February 2015 at 12:09 pm

Just Scatter the seed let nature do the rest....This is such a small piece of land

DELETED ACCOUNT

Thursday 19^th February 2015 at 12:51 pm

This is a great idea - there are pathways linking to it. One of those pathways leads under the by - pass. Half of the lights under there have been broken for a long time and the walls under the bridge get covered in graffititi as soon as the last lot is cleaned up - but not to worry the bit that people see as they drive by, rather than walk by, will look wonderful.

Terry Roeves

Thursday 19^th February 2015 at 8:35 pm

Jackie - your CEC Cllr will be able to help get the lights fixed and perhaps get the walls cleaned again. It's outside WTC remit. They have ' flower power' but little else, unless CEC transfer the s106 monies from Wilmslow sitting in their bank account.
If WTC Cllrs can't get our money, they should resign en-masse. Early May makes sense.

Pete Taylor

Thursday 19^th February 2015 at 11:14 pm

Um... seems like WTC are desperate to spend a budget, anywhere, on anything, before the end of the Financial Year...
Presumably Paul, "the Ranger", works for either WTC or CEC, so why is he charging US £900 for this work? (I'm usually wrong in these matters) so is this not part of his day job?

If I were looking for a place to spend £2k of our money on seeding, this tiny corner of pavement would not be on my short-list.
"Wildflower meadow", hey Cllrs, give us a break.

Perhaps Cllr McNulty could provide a couple of photographs showing how this place is visible from "the northbound A34"(sic)?

Roll on election time. Let's kick party-politics out of local "government".

Monday 23^rd February 2015 at 4:45 pm

The idea is good, but....... I've just walked past this small piece of ground with the dogs.. Its tiny ... Forget wasting 2 grand on such a small project..... nonsense........ give the money to charity and just leave the land to nature........ Dont waste our taxes .... use tax dollars wisely.... This might be fast approaching year end but no need to fritter away money ..... or just liaise with the ' incredible edible' team in Wilmslow and let them use the land.. ???

Mike Norbury

Tuesday 24^th February 2015 at 10:25 am

im a professional gardener, not touting for the job or anything as im busy enough....... but that figure for such a small planting/seeding job seems very high.

Simon Worthington

Wednesday 25^th February 2015 at 2:53 pm

Surely Mr. Jones could fit some offices on the site!

Thursday 26^th February 2015 at 1:49 pm

Can't help thinking that if this scheme is needed at all then it should be on the green grass at Little Lindow- that is a gateway to Wilmslow too and, unlike the scrappy little triangle, is actually walked past by hundreds (thousands?) of people per day. You can't even see the sloping triangle from the other side of Mill Street (let alone the by-pass) and surely anyone driving to/from the junction will be looking at the road?

In case the Councillor does not know where Little Lindow is- it is next to the Police Station and the Fire Station.

Buster Wild

Thursday 26^th February 2015 at 1:58 pm

HOW MUCH!!!!!!

Sunday 17^th May 2015 at 9:02 pm

Still nothing happening here, as Cllr McNulty was booted out at the recent election, perhaps her daughter, who was elected, could comment on whether this was a wise use of 1950 of our money?

Monday 18^th May 2015 at 10:05 am

Pete ; Wise never came into this equatuion, (Re other threads)...... its now possibly a green belt development site for new starter homes ????