I’m sure many of you will have marvelled at the profusion of wildflowers along some of our road verges last summer. Also, like me, you will have been dismayed when those flowers were mown down in their prime by over-zealous farmers or Suffolk Highways contractors, all for the sake of “neatness”. This practice has many negative aspects, including cost to taxpayers, pollution from machinery, traffic disruption and reduction of biodiversity.
No-one would dispute that regular road verge cutting is necessary for safety at places such as road junctions, but surely there has to be a better overall approach? 97% of our wildflower meadows have vanished since the 1930s, yet sympathetically managed road verges could largely compensate for this tragic loss.
Fortunately, Plantlife are looking to rectify the damage done to our biodiversity. They are encouraging councils to sign up to a mowing regime that can be summed up as "cut less, cut later". This regime would significantly improve the health of our verges. Plants would be allowed to flower so pollinators could work their magic and seeds would ripen and fall to the ground. In this way, the floral display would become better and better every year. Councils already working with Plantlife include Dorset, Oxfordshire and Shropshire County Councils, East Cambridgeshire District Council and many more.
Benefits from the more sympathetic mowing regime encouraged by Plantlife include: increased beauty of our county for residents and visitors, massively increased biodiversity, greatly enhanced connectivity between habitats enabling our wildlife to move more freely around the countryside, potentially greater carbon capture by healthier verges, lower pollution from mowers and power tools and less disruption to traffic. To say nothing of the potential savings to taxpayers.
Suffolk County Council is beginning to work with Plantlife and is considering adopting a less severe verge mowing regime. Indeed they will be experimenting in October this year by sowing yellow rattle at the A12/A1094 junction. Yellow rattle parasitises grass and reduces its growth, important at junctions such as ours where cutting is difficult.
You may also want to encourage wildflowers by leaving an area of your garden unmown until late August every year. Then, mow closely and gather or rake off the mowings to reduce soil fertility. Then simply see what grows. You can encourage it further by sprinkling seeds of yellow rattle, oxeye daisies, cowslips, yarrow or whatever else takes your wildflower fancy!