Just before you get up to the top of the lane to the main road there is a piece of land which presumably belongs to the developers of the (still new-ish) estate. It is not much use for anything, being basically a long narrow triangle with a sinuous hypotenuse, but it has been used for storing various bits of equipment during the long saga of construction. Even that came to an end last year when the, hopefully final, job was the installation of a low level crash barrier along the inside edge of the pavement, obviously put there lest any driver misjudge the corner to go straight over the edge & down into the culvert twenty or thirty feet below. It also has the added advantage of making the land inaccessible for parking.
This year it is well on the way to becoming a beautiful mini wild flower meadow.
The main practical regret for the development of the field was the loss of a valuable soakway & the worries about the effect on local drainage. The field had been left fallow for years & was gradually being taken over by weeds rather than becoming a meadow – bit of an eyesore, some thought. Occasionally animals were brought in to graze, usually goats or ponies & some sheep one year. I thought it looked rather French, particularly on one side where a completely ramshackle shed – wooden walls weathered grey, rusty corrugated iron roof – was surrounded by a mass of pink – some Himalayan balsam, mostly rose bay willow herb. It could have been an impressionist painting.
The mini meadow is mostly a riot of buttercups, always one of my favourite flowers as a child. There are a few thistles, some ragged robin & ragwort & I spotted a small clump of forget-me-nots (or possibly speedwell) hiding low to the ground. A lot of wild chives, scabious, some tall clover, plenty of plantain, dock & nettles & a variety of grasses.
Life always finds a way.
This year it is well on the way to becoming a beautiful mini wild flower meadow.
The main practical regret for the development of the field was the loss of a valuable soakway & the worries about the effect on local drainage. The field had been left fallow for years & was gradually being taken over by weeds rather than becoming a meadow – bit of an eyesore, some thought. Occasionally animals were brought in to graze, usually goats or ponies & some sheep one year. I thought it looked rather French, particularly on one side where a completely ramshackle shed – wooden walls weathered grey, rusty corrugated iron roof – was surrounded by a mass of pink – some Himalayan balsam, mostly rose bay willow herb. It could have been an impressionist painting.
The mini meadow is mostly a riot of buttercups, always one of my favourite flowers as a child. There are a few thistles, some ragged robin & ragwort & I spotted a small clump of forget-me-nots (or possibly speedwell) hiding low to the ground. A lot of wild chives, scabious, some tall clover, plenty of plantain, dock & nettles & a variety of grasses.
Life always finds a way.
