Since the last post on Weedkiller and a reply from the council that stated “we are looking in to the reduction of weedkiller” – they return to dish out another dose!

But sadly this time not just in and around bushes but covered the entire plot of wild flowers and scrub under the trees that where planted a few years ago.  So so many perenial wildflowers destroyed, so many less bees, so many less butterflies.

And to cap it all they not only spray public land they have been on to my property and sprayed there too!

I would really like to know when this lazy practice will stop – lazy Wigan Council, taking short cuts today so we all pay in the future!

The effects of Weedkiller

Good afternoon to all the people who read this blog from Standish and where ever – who ever you are. welcome!  Its been a while since I wrote here, to be honest I’ve been less than well for a number of years so its been tough in more ways than one.

ANYWAY!   Sometimes you simply can’t lay back and let things rot, sometimes you simply have to take some positive action.

Recently Wigan Council (whom I have to say aren’t too bad these days) instructed their ‘gardeners’ to come and prepare for the new mowing season.  SO off they went around all the grass areas to spray some less than wonderful weed killer under the bushes to make life easier.  Well to say it looks shocking is an understatement, and I wasn’t sure what it does to the wild life and insects.

So I did a little research and found this on a website called Wild Life News – “New research just published by a team from Washington State University indicates that commonly used weed-killers that were previously thought to be safe can have damaging impacts on butterfly populations and threaten the survival of the rarest species.”

Standish Peacock Butterfly

That’s not good!!  Last year I was overjoyed at the amount of butterflies and bees I saw up and down ‘the line’ in Standish so much so I took a couple of pictures like the one on the left and below. (anyone want to buy a picture get in touch I will put the money towards some more gravel for the line).  The increase in butterflies can only be down to the improvement in of the flora and fauna over the years, wild flowers etc, thanks to donations, a little hard work and the good old donations from Standish Community Forum.

Now Wigan Council come along with weed killer!

Why because for some crazy reason councils spend money on mowing the living day lights out of green areas rather than looking to the cheaper and more eco friendly way of keeping green areas looking good.  Lets face it in urban areas a good well tended grass area looks nice.  But it has to be well tended, it needs to have proper borders and look like someone cares about it.  Aren’t these types of areas best suited to parks rather than public spaces.  The amount of open grass areas that councils across the UK need to tend must run in to the tens of thousands of acres (I don’t know it may be more).  All of these spaces do not in anyway help the bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects – not one jot.  They simply cost money.

In this day and age with the use of weed killer and the changes in agriculture the population of pollinating insects is plummeting rapidly.  Some may say – so what!  However if we loose these insects we loose most of our food simple!  If you want to read more take a read at this that I recently wrote for another blog of mine.

Wild flower Meadow

So what’s the solution?  Easy instead of spending money and fuel mowing these unproductive grass areas why not turn them into wild flower meadows.  Its cheaper and more productive, and personally I say much more beautiful.  What do you think … the above image  with badly tended unproductive grass or something like the one on the right.  Its a a better solution – the insects win, councils save money and of course if the insects win we keep our fruit!

All in all the project has been worth while but really its never over, it could do with more gravel to fill in the worn areas (not a lot really) and it would be really good to get more people collecting litter.  Today from only a small area of the line my 7 year old daughter picked 5 bags of litter alone.  WHY OH WHY OH WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO THROW LITTER!!!!  I for one will never know, but if a 7 year old can gain a sense of achievement collecting litter I’m sure most adults can start to feel a little ashamed.

On a brighter note, whilst picking litter we both spotted nestled deep in the dog wood a thrush tightly sitting on her eggs – now that’s a sight for sore eyes and surely a sign that spring is just around the corner!

P.S – the whole area has seed distributed to help pollinating insects bought by me personally and planted with care.  Lets see the flowers bloom.

Heres a few photographs, I’ll take some more soon but I am really happy with the way Standish Line is looking now, the amount of people that use it regularly is amazing and it has stayed quite litter free.

However   I think we can do more   anyone want to donate some crush and run stone?  I need to fill in the pot holes now I think 

The reasons are varied – but lets just say one person can’t put up with the knock backs you get when you try and make a difference.

I will operate without report from now on in as I first intended and develop a true Guerilla Gardening ethic – stealth.

Suffice to say the wild flower plot – was murdered by Wigan Council Gardeners with deadly weedkiller if anyone would like anymore info I’m happy to provide it!

So far I haven’t had any more wild flower seeds to replace the ones murdered – so officially the project has stopped!

I’ve seen people take trees and plants (newly planted) and had the farce of council workers cutting down wild flowers.  Today I’ve noticed that almost half of the area I had designated as wild flower cultivation area for seed has been flattened by – well, people, (I assume youths) simply lying in it and flattening it all.  My first emotion was rage and despondency, my second and much more (I hope) balanced – which was, how where they supposed to know and anyway it is a public space.

This got me thinking about Environmental Ignorance and how the message about environmental concerns isn’t really getting through at grass roots level, ok we recycle more and it’s become quite hip and cool to grow your own veg.  But how much do the youth of today really care about environmental issues, wild flowers, the demise of the honey bee and the actions we can take to at least slow the whole process down.

I figure very little.  And although there’s a part of me that says hey the flattened grass at least shows the small group of trees and wild grasses is appreciated – if only to sit down comfortably.  As you eat chips out of a polystyrene carton, chuck it on the ground, forget to take your coat home and the leave litter everywhere – but appreciated for it’s comfort.  But maybe a memory could be retained in the person that did that, for them to ask sometime in the future – where the hell has all the wild areas gone?  And maybe that very person could decide to restore a little patch somewhere.

OK, all shout together – YOU’RE DELUDED!

And maybe I am, and you’re more than likely right.  So what should we do to stop it, how can we change the ways of so many, stop litter and properly educate them about the way they can make a difference.

I believe the only way we can do this is to build a youth community service right into the curriculum!  Simple solution to show young people of today that everything doesn’t just happen, there’s a cause and effect with everything we do.  Making positive community service a compulsory part of the curriculum – “you’ve not done your 100 hours this year so don’t tick that box on your list of qualifications” – type of thing. This I think would make such a difference to the environment and communities in general.  At very least it would show how your actions can have a detrimental effect in so many ways.  And I’m not talking about just the environment there’s hundreds of ways the youth of today could make a difference and make them and use proud to live where we live.

This isn’t about youth bashing, it’s about bringing about a sea change in the way we all think, outside the bubble of our houses and more into the community.  Building a community spirit rather than isolating the old from the young the families away from the singletons.  Allotments aren’t just popular because you can grow cheap and tasty veg, they are a micro community where people share the same values and goals, help each other and pass on wisdom, where the old meet with the young and one elderly lady shows a young 4 year old the right way to prick out seedlings.  That’s the real reason why allotments are popular – it’s community, valuing the energy of youth and wisdom of age and everything inbetween.

Ok I can rattle about Environmental Ignorance all I like but we won’t ever jump over that hurdle until Communities start to integrate properly.  We should harness the energy of the youth to build the communities of tomorrow.  Leave them alone at our peril because they will be the next generation of leaders and workers – and at the moment all I see is an ‘I want attitude, where celebrity is supreme, shopping centres are the new places of worship and the everyone will become famous one day mentality.   OK some may say I’m as deluded as they are, but the youth of today can become the new breed they can be proud to live real and stop living ‘their lies’ – the lies of marketing, propaganda and consumption!

What do you say?

I have a bush/tree in my garden and each year it flowers with some beautiful and quite fragrant blue flowers – I love it and it really adds a mass of colour to the garden.

BUT it attracts bees in their thousands, each year it buzzes to the sound of bees.  So much so we’ve called it the buzzy bee tree! It’s great!!

I want to encourage people to get one of these trees because if nothing else the bees really need as much help as they can get and they obviously love this tree for sure. All that said I don’t know what it’s called!!!  Like I mentioned it’s a bush/tree, stands about 6ft tall and is about 6ft wide, has beautiful clusters of tiny blue flowers on it with dark green evergreen foliage.  Once the flowering is over it produces dark almost black berries also in clusters.  Stupid thing is, I actually planted this about 8 years ago and failed to write down the name – so can anyone help?  If you know please email me using the contact form and hopefully we can promote the Buzzy Buzzy Bee Tree and give the bees a hand!

See pictures below.

Mission accomplished – thanks to some friends down in London village the plant in question is a Ceanothus or Californian Lilac!!!  Buy one now – Bees love them!!!

Now then which variety is it and does anyone have a spare bee hive – mmm hunny???

Ceanothus Dark Star??

I have received a reply from a Local Councillor who is investigating it.  Some people may find this an insignificant kind of action, but I believe it is these types of inconsistent and blind actions that smacks of disconnected councils and I believe could prove to be the tip of the iceberg in terms of ludicrous and poorly considered policies.  One minute we are told the Mineral Line is private land and the next the Council mow it?  One minute we are told we can’t have litter bins because the land is private and out of the Councils control and the next they flail down indiscriminately chopping up litter, leaving it blowing in the wind, leave a mess everywhere, kill many wild plants, cut down saplings and do a very poor job in the bargain.

As I have stated time and time again – either do a job properly with care or don’t bother.  The public grass that has been cut would have been better left to go to meadow, many commented on how great it looked before it was cut.  Then in the Autumn cut it down – bag the hay and sell it to pet shops or farmers – at very least compost it.  That’s a much more natural approach to public space maintenance.  And if not that – let’s have the job done regularly and properly and have it left presentable.

It would be a far more professional job if it was left to someone who cared and made it there business to tend it.

It’s about time, in my mind councils took notice of how the volunteering force can be assisted in making this borough a more inclusive and empowering place to live – rather than ignore the underpinning and valuable work they do.

Anyway here’s the pictures, notice the chopped up litter, and the tyre tracks down the verge next to of all things a nature reserve!!!  Don’t understand!

The last pictures shows the dead poppy heads – just ready to come into flower.  OK so they are ornamental, all the same they add a vibrant touch of colour to a track that needs much more tlc than I can provide.  Pic4 shows the ‘beautiful’ chopped up litter – how many bin loads of litter have I picked over the last year or so? – erm at least 9 blue bins full!!  Pic 3 shows the nature reserve and the tyre tracks left by the mower.

More’s the point as I live so close I watched the operatives attitude as they did the job – slap dash and get it done quick was most certainly the aire they had and they hurtled up and down.  Should I have challenged them? I doubt I would have received a fair hearing really.

OK nothing I can do about that now, sad though it is but nature has an uncanny way of eating this stuff for dinner – all this said I really think it’s about time that something more positive was done to develop community spirit and give people a vent to build something together.  It’s all very well and good one renegade making the TV for his work as a Guerilla Gardener but it’s not the type of thing your average person wants to be involved with.  It would be superb if Standish developed a proper community garden, get the schools involved, the older people and the kids, get them to grow community veg and get close to nature.  There’s a massive move towards allotments again what better way to bind a community than for us all to share the fruits (and veg) of our labour.

Take a look at this site – just one I found in Islington – it’s cool, really cool.

Onwards!

I’ve been walking the line each morning looking for the first signs of wild flowers growing – I saw some signs yipee.  Some colour to the verge, some beautiful grasses with long slender feathery flowers  where looking wonderful.

Then one sunny June morning some idiots turn up employed by Wigan Council and drive up and down on a sit on monster of a gas guzzling mower and rolled over the lot!!  And this is on a part of the borough that they don’t own!!! Hey what on earth is going on!  We don’t own it, can’t put bins on it but we’ll roll all over it with a massive mower!!  I wouldn’t care if they did a good job they where environmental thugs!!!  Tufts of grass left all over the place, no cuttings removed or mulched, mowed over small fir trees and almost all of the verge leaving dirty great big tire tracks all the way along The Line.

I’ve asked this question so many times why oh why can’t people like me receive some form of subsidy to properly take care of these areas of what could be outstanding natural beauty.  All this just at the time when insects and pollinators are needing good habitats to thrive in.

Why do I do it because not many other people care!!!

Any answers anyone?

Anyway I’ve not posted for some time and thought I’d better fill people in on what’s been happening.

Well not a lot of gardening sadly just a lot of litter picking trying to keep the rubbish at bay.  Main problem, Subway wrappers dropped by some of the Standish High School children as they eat their breakfast sub on the way to school – grrr get’s on my nerves, and the powers that be at Standish High School never reply to emails which is even more annoying.

However I have a new little volunteer on the litter picking front, my 5 year old girl, she’s got her own litter picking device and seems to revel in tidying the place up.  We have been given an industrial size blue wheelie bin to collect in – which we fill at least once a month.

There is plenty signs of growth now from both the wild flower seeds and indeed the trees we planted last year, we lost about 6 tree out of 20 which is really good.  So everything in the garden is rosy so to speak.

So what’s next?

Hmm I’ve decided to plant random food type plants along the path, I have raspberry canes to go in, I planted a plum tree in the winter and intend to buy some apple and pear trees to plant up and down – and plant donations would be great, esp productive edible plants.

I’ve got to thinking that it’s all very well and good planting trees and tidying the place up – great, and it seems that so many people enjoy it, but why not make the land more productive?  So that’s what I’m going to do next, plant food! – but keep it quiet I don’t want a big song and dance made about it this time, let’s face it I haven’t done anything that amazing.

I have to say though I am looking forward to Google updating the maps for this area – then I’ll be able to see the brand new sand stone path running the full mile from the top of Standish to the bottom.

As soon as we see signs of wildflowers along the path I’ll post some pictures.

Happy gardening, guerilla or otherwise.

Dx

One interesting thing is that they approached me, so for anyone who is thinking of doing a bit just do it as Nike would say!

Sooner rather than later someone will take note and appreciate your efforts it just seems that for some bizzare reason I have more people than I ever imagined taking note and appreciating it.

Anyway on a good news front I am being given my own wheelie bin so I can litter pick along the full mile stretch – donated by Wigan Council.  To be fair to Wigan Council they do have there hands tied somewhat with this path simply because of the fact that it isn’t a recongnised and legal footpath so can’t really do anything.  So the donation of a wheelie bin is wicked – rest assured it’s a bigger deal than most would imagine and better than a wheel barrow for picking litter.

And some more good news  I have seedlins coming up already – which is normal for wild flower seeds, they all seems to have taken quite nicely so hopefully next year there will be a bountiful amount of wildflowers.

And finally – the path has been battered with rain since it was laid but I can report that it has remained passable and relatively puddle free – more importantly it drains really really well.

BTW those who want to see the complete story that was aired on North West Tonight you can watch it again at – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7605282.stm 

TTFN

Dave