In support of Plantlife’s No Mow May campaign, Buckingham Town Council will be leaving large sections of the town’s greenspaces uncut throughout May and beyond. Housing estates’ verges and safety sight lines along the town’s roads, play facilities and footpaths paths will, however, still be cut.

Ever wondered who is responsible for cutting the grass near you? Visit Buckinghamshire Council’s useful map, linked below:
http://ow.ly/jKBp50Jb62C

Throughout May visitors to the town’s parks and greenspaces will see areas of grass left to grow and wildflowers allowed to bloom. A perfect example is within Bourton Park, where grassy paddocks are covered in a sea of wild grasses and frothy white Cow Parsley.

The campaign, which is organised by wild plant conservation charity Plantlife, encourages people to support wildlife and boost pollination by leaving some of its greenspaces to grow across the town throughout May. The Town Council is also encouraging residents, where possible, to do similar with their lawns.

Buckingham Town Council is working towards becoming carbon-neutral by 2030 and one target is to review grass cutting regimes and promote biodiversity. Hopefully, by reducing the schedule of cuts in our greenspaces, it will give some of our open spaces time to flourish and boost the numbers of wild flowers that provide valuable food for pollinators.

Buckingham Town Council has already enhanced a number of areas over the past few year, including increasing meadow and wildflower areas to over 10,250 m2 in total since 2017/18 to improve biodiversity and help pollinators – that’s over 2.5 acres or 14 tennis courts and has the potential to be home to millions of insects.

In addition, the Council’s Green Spaces Team uses a fully electric van meaning lower vehicle emissions and less noise when undertaking maintenance.  All grass cuttings and prunings collected by the team are composted and used on council sites.

Wildflowers add a wonderful variety of colour to any garden or community space. But more importantly, they provide bumblebees and other insects with food, shelter and habitat..

In the past 80 years large areas of wildflower habitat have disappeared from the countryside. This has left bumblebees with little to feed on, and is strongly linked with bumblebee numbers declining in many places..

However, you can ‘Bee the Change’! Wildflowers can happily grow outside in pots, plots or planters. If you don’t have access to a patch of soil, it’s a great place to start, especially for balconies or a paved area.

How to sow your wildflower seeds

1. Sow in Spring or Autumn, ideally in grass free soil. Make sure the soil is not too
wet or dry and avoid that urge to add topsoil, as native wildflowers do well on
low nutrient soil!

2. Give the soil a good rake over and sprinkle the seeds by hand. Grass can grow quickly and strongly and can stop the wildflowers from growing. You don’t want any competition for the wildflowers!

3. Rake the soil again to cover the seeds, but don’t bury them! Remember, seeds need sunlight to germinate. 

4. Carefully water the area and relax!

If you are using a pot or planter, then make sure there are holes in the bottom for drainage.

Remember to share photographs of your wildflower patches with us @buckingham-tc

For more fantastic information and fascinating wildflower based activities, visit Buzzing Bucks