The meadows are lush now, with the long warm dry spell seemingly broken by a warm wet spell. I didn’t head to the marsh for a couple of days and when I came back the growth of vegetation was tangible.
Best though was plants coming into flower
The marshes aren’t known for their rare plants. Historically they were but years of agricultural intensification and the spraying of fertiliser wiped out quite a lot of wildflowers. The grasses grew vigorously though. Slowly the wildflowers are returning.
Wild roses are scrambling out of the hedgerows.
Marsh Yellow cress has started appearing in a few places
Meadow Rue has appeared in two places. It was unknown until two weeks ago when some botanists found it.
The appearance of some plants is really welcome. Others are less welcome; Hemlock water dropwort is one, stinging nettles are another.
They are vigorous and dominant and could do with a little bit of taming. Left alone they’ll not just take over. They’ll also block paths and then the path gets cleared, by the council with a machine and everything gets cut down.
Armed with an old grass hook I wander along the path and selectively cut down some of the vegetation. If I spot something a little less common next to something really vigorous and abundant I’ll clear a bit of the path to let it seed.
I’m there often enough to keep the path usable and interesting at the same time
There’s another patch, one of many, swamped with nettles. There was a huge old ash tree there but a couple of years ago it blew over. The nettle patch beneath it was given unlimited sunlight and thrived.
In the shade of that tree was a small fragment of grass. Maybe really old grass that hasn’t been sprayed. Maybe with a bit of care some more wildflowers might thrive there. I just need to stop the nettle spread. I’ve been thinking about it for a while but finally got around to doing something about it. Since I last looked the nettles had really spread and I ended up having to dig out the roots. By digging them out I might have exposed some seeds to light.
They’ll germinate and I’ll find out what they are. Whatever they are they’ll be truly wild. I don’t expect anything especially rare or colourful. And I won’t be scattering seeds from a packet. That’s not how wildflowers spread.
All the while I’m serenaded by the background of birdsong. Reed warblers and Cuckoos, Blackbirds and Song Thrush sing all the while. A Lesser Whitethroat passed through briefly singing as it did.
Common Whitethroats abound nearby. There’s a Wren and her young in the nettles and there’s a great tit in one of the remaining dead ash trees.
There was a pile of junk left behind by a camper, a tent and clothing and plastic bags and I’ve cleared it all away.
I found quite a few toads while I cleared it up. They were a nice surprise so I piled up heaps of cut vegetation for them to hide under.
Let’s see what nature does next!
Rural Reading 