It’s June 2022 and our Buzz Stop’s looking better than ever!
To make our Buzz Stop super pollinator- friendly, we’re very excited to report that Hertfordshire City Council and Clear Channel recently replaced our existing bus shelter with a purpose-built one with a sedum roof. (Dec 2021). For more detailed information on how this is planted and constructed, follow the link to our resources page.
We are so happy that bees have found our Lancaster Rd Buzz Stop! Pictured here are Buff tailed bumblebees foraging on clover and cornflowers, as well as what is now a meadow filled with buttercups and cornflowers. Poppies, ox eye daisies, clover, corncockle and yellow rattle are also growing on the site (June 15th 2021)
Our first ‘Buzz Stop’ is on the corner of Lancaster and Sandridge Roads, where members of Wilderhood Watch and the Green Party initially spent Saturday 5th October 2019 sowing seeds for a wildflower meadow. The native seed mixture we use contains hardy annual and perennial varieties.
We are now spotting cornflowers, poppies, tall buttercups, camomile, forget-me-nots and corncockle at our Buzz Stop, as well as lots of clover just about to flower. The best thing is, pollinators such as Buff-tailed bumblebees and overflies are now visiting the site (June 2021)
Wilderhood Watch members Michiko and Bill very kindly helped plant Great Verbascum at our Buzz Stop on May 5th 2021. A native wildflower, it can grow up to 2 metres tall, and is the food plant for the lovely Verbascum moth. Many thanks to Amanda Yorwerth for donating the plants!
In March 2021, the native daffodils we planted around the oak tree in the Autumn started flowering. Come late April, the ones we planted at the back of the site (kindly donated by St Albans BID), are looking beautiful. We’re hoping they will keep multiplying for years to come!
After a couple of false starts, where our Buzz Stop meadow was inadvertently mown twice by the Council’s contractors, we are now happy to report that our Buzz Stop has been exempt from mowing since then. The grass grew significantly longer over the Summer of 2020 and some wild flowers began to appear.
On November 28th we planted 100 wild daffodil bulbs, and on December 15th we planted over 200 more along with volunteers from St Albans district Young Greens.
On Saturday, November 7th 2020 we decided to rescarify and plant more wildflower seeds over part of the Buzz Stop area. Hopefully this will mean we’ll see lots more pollinator-friendly flowers growing this Summer.
Here are photos of our initial attempt to plant our wildflower meadow – as you can see this was in pre-lockdown times!
