Welcome to the Beech Rd Wilderhood Watch page! We’re keen to involve more people in looking after our neighbourhood wildlife.
We were so pleased that our October 2023 plant giveaway resulted in lots of pollinator-friendly plants finding new homes in nearby gardens. We also very much enjoyed meeting our neighbours and welcoming their involvement in growing our street Pollinator Highway. This was a collaboration with Firbank Ave and Sheppards Close Wilderhood Watch groups.
On the first weekend of July we held a small stall to publicise our 2023 St Albans Butterfly Challenge.
We had a fantastic time at our Beech rd/Firbank rd stall on Sunday October 8, 2022. Not only were our seed and plant giveaways, as well as our custom made cards, very popular, but we gained some lovely new recruits to help us with our street projects!
Here on Beech Road several residents have planted up hedges. Inspired by the Plant a Hedge project, this recent example in a back garden on Beech Road shows bare root planting of a native mixed hedge. This one is made up of blackthorn, hawthorn, wild cherry, spindle and wild privet with guilder rose and red dogwood for added interest. This is a fabulous addition to a bird and wildlife friendly garden.
The native hedges we planted in our gardens are developing nicely. It’s looking like most of the bare root varieties in this hedge have taken well with shoots and leaves appearing on the vast majority of stems within 6 weeks of planting in early February.
We’re joining in with the Wilderhood Watch Toad Road project and encouraging neighbours to dig ponds in their gardens. Creating a pond is one of the best ways to increase biodiversity in your garden, and to ensure that all the animals have a reliable water source.
As you can see, this Beech rd pond is developing well with the addition of some native bog/marsh plants and marginals including fritillary melegris, marsh marigold, water forget-me-not and water mint, some Dutch rush and carex, as well as oxygenators such as water Crowfoot. There’s no frogspawn this first year, but we’re hopeful for year 2!
Another wonderful addition to Beech Rd’s Toad Road!
On Beech Rd we’ve been going out litter picking regularly since July 2021 (so almost monthly!), clearing our verges and taking care of the Wilderhood Watch Buzz stops. Litter is not only unsightly but positively dangerous for animals including hedgehogs, other small mammals and birds. Hopefully residents can see our commitment to caring for our wilder green spaces…which doesn’t mean uncared for. We even had two new volunteers joining us this month!
Since our first litter pick, our team has now expanded to include some of the youngest residents on our street!
Our projects so far:
- Pollinator Highway
- Litter picking
- King Will Buzz Stops
- Plant a Hedge
- Toad Road
- Glyphosate-free Streets
- Firbank rd Buzz Stops
If you’d like to join in, please contact Jo Brown or nadia@wilderhoodwatch.org
