life
COUNTRYSIDE, WILDLIFE & FARMING
countryside news
what to look out for
COMPILED BY:
TONY RIDD
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62
Centaury
Large traditional hay meadows with their
colourful mix of wild flowers are all but a
thing of the past. Cliff tops and downland
are two of the last few areas safeguarding
this important heritage. One of my favourite
dwarf wild flowers is ‘centaury’ a small and
delicate pink flower that looks like it should
be rarer than it is, and is a real treat to find
when out walking.
back to nature
A countrymans diary
This is the time of year, people tells us how
lucky we are to be working outside. Long
hot sunny days wondering around the
countryside…it does sound rather idyllic!
In practice it isn’t always like that, as
with most trades, especially, it seems the
farming and landscaping ones, we seem
to always behind schedule. The summer
is a great time for us to catch up, or so we
think!
We are still spraying our woodlands to
control the grass around newly planted
trees and cutting some of the woodland
rides to
make them
accessible.
I believe if
something is
useable it will
be looked
after and will result in an ever-increasing
circle of improvement.
Along with larger winter landscape
schemes, we bring a little of the
countryside to our smaller projects that
we get involved in through the summer
months. Wildlife areas in urban gardens,
that can incorporate a small pond
are often created with less mess and
compaction that would occur in the winter.
I will spend time making the most of
our lighter evenings, checking over our
winter work and making notes for any
management that will be required the
following season, assisted obviously by
Coba (the dog) who generally has an easy
ride as you can see in photo above…
www.wightfrog.com/islandlife