Food for Butterflies
There’s a chance that endangered Small Blue and Dingy Skipper butterflies will find the food plants for their larvae (caterpillars) in Batheaston next year.
Grow Batheaston partnered with Avon WIldlife Trust (AWT), volunteers from Interaction UK (a Bath based B Corp company) and a WIldlife Champion from Bristol to plant wildflowers in Batheaston.
Emma Fennel-Hodson Wildlife Champions Co-ordinator, and Alex Dommett, People and Wildlife Manager, both from AWT, provided hula hoops, tools, plants and seeds from the Grow Wilder plant nursery.
The hoops were used to mark out circles in the grass. The turf within the circles was removed to give the flowers a chance to grow without having to compete with the grass.
The plants are native species, all chosen for being attractive to a host of pollinators. They include Kidney Vetch which has fluffy yellow flowers and is the food plant of the larvae of Small Blue butterflies; Corky Fruited Water Dropwort with a fabulous name and clusters of white flowers; Field Scabious; Greater Knapweed; Yarrow; Oxeye Daisy and Birdsfoot Trefoil which feeds the larvae of the Dingy Skipper butterfly.
They were planted in groups, so that the pollinators don’t have to travel far to find the next flowers, and to create wilddlife corridors.
Interaction UK gives each of its employees two paid days a year for a charitable activity. Scarlett Copsey, Lily de Malpas-Player and Laura Stephens chose to spend a day helping Grow Batheaston improve the environment for lots of pollinators and for Batheastoners.
Sue Adamson, who came over from Bristol, is a passionate member of the Wildlife Champions programme run by AWT. With no prior experience, she joined the Wildlife Champions when she retired. Since then she has been on many courses run by AWT and helps with lots of community nature work.
GB has two Wildlife Champions, Alison Harper and Steve Harper. They organised the planting day, and were there digging, hauling turves and planting.
The group also visited the Forest Garden, part of the Secret Garden by the river, to see Grow Batheaston’s achievements there.
Thanks to Heritage Lottery Funding, Avon Wildlife Trust is able run the Wildlife Champions programme and support nature activities such as this day of planting.