John Peatfield
'Highlights are often small – like finding a grasshopper where there have never been any before; new plant species suddenly appearing; getting questions from others about what we are doing and passing on the messages with enthusiasm.'
John Peatfield
Do you want to help nature in your community, but you're not sure how? Finding like-minded people can help to spark action – our next Nature Heroes tapped into and shared their combined knowledge to make their gardens and local area better for wildlife.
Here's more from John:
'Our neighbourly project to improve things for pollinators and wildlife came about by serendipity, rather than design. Casual conversations developed via meetings of Burneside Parish Council’s Biodiversity Group and like-minded people started to gravitate towards each other.
Tonia, a local farmer with a passion for meadows, was central, with her friendship with Claire and Andy who were already ‘wilding’ parts of their garden. I was doing similar in my garden and found out about their work.
Claire, Tonia and Andy adopted a small section of local grass verge, which had been left to become an ecologically poor habitat dominated by rank grasses, but also a neglected eyesore that attracted litter and dog mess.
Plug plants, grown with seed shared from Tonia’s meadow, were put in place and are blooming. I also took some seed and plug plants for my garden, which is now a near-meadow itself!
There is some strong knowledge and science behind our actions, as several of us have professional backgrounds in botany, ecology and regenerative farming. We all know about the power of key species like yellow rattle and eyebright to thin out grasses and which plants are favourites of different insects. Ideas are shared and spread; some residents at Cowan Head are now developing a field into a new meadow, too.
Highlights are often small – like finding a grasshopper where there have never been any before; new plant species suddenly appearing; getting questions from others about what we are doing and passing on the messages with enthusiasm.
The challenge is to get more and more people to take ideas like #NoMowMay seriously, rather than it just being a slogan. Behind it all are the increasingly clear clarion calls from conservationists, local, national and global, that we are losing wildlife at alarming rates and we need to act now.
Dave Goulson’s cry of the ‘Insect Apocalypse’ hit home and showed that gardens and small verges can be vital refuges for insects. Biodiversity starts at home!
We do hope that more people will be inspired by example to garden for wildlife. In Bowston, we can see areas of potential and want to show how being ‘plant untidy’ is better than mowing every lawn to a one-centimetre high green desert.
As naturalist E.O.Wilson said, ‘We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless’.'
Discover ways to help UK wildlife at home