The wildflower areas at St Luke’s Campus are looking fantastic.
More Wow Wildflowers!
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Tag Archives: wildflower meadow
Wow Wildflowers!
The wildflowers at the Reed Hall beds are in flower and looking glorious.
Last year we trialled having wildflowers instead of the customary formal planting in these beds and they proved so popular with everyone and the bees, butterflies and insects that we’ve done it again!
Bees’ Needs Week 8th-14th July 2019
Bees and other pollinators are vital to growing lots of our favourite foods and for plants to flourish in our fields and gardens.
It is Bees’ Needs Week from 8th to 14th July 2019 and whether you are a farmer, a gardener or a manager of urban or amenity spaces, there is something you can do to help support our valuable insect pollinators.
There are five simple actions you can take to help pollinators and make sure their populations are sustained:
- Grow more flowers, shrubs and trees – our mature and exotic plants give long flowering periods for bees and insects.
- Let your garden grow wild – we have wildflower meadows located throughout our campuses to encourage biodiversity.
- Cut your grass less often – we ensure refuge strips are left uncut along campus watercourses to encourage wildlife.
- Don’t disturb insect nest and hibernation spots – we practise sympathetic maintenance regimes and have installed bug hotels and insect palaces throughout our campuses.
- Think carefully about whether to use pesticides – we use Integrated Pest Management to minimise the use of pesticides.
It’s Go Green Week!
It’s Go Green Week – head over to The Forum where you can find out how to boost your sustainability skills and learn how to make practical green changes. There are loads of activities and events going on until Friday 22nd March.
New St Luke’s Campus Biodiversity Trail
The St Luke’s Campus continues to provide a wide range of habitats which help support birds, insects, reptiles, mammals and aquatic life. The habitats should not be viewed in isolation, as they help form important links and wildlife corridors to other areas of open space not owned or maintained by the University. In this respect, the campus spaces make an important contribution to biodiversity in Exeter and the wider county of Devon.
We have developed a St Luke’s Campus Biodiversity Trail which can be downloaded from our website. Please do take a walk around the campus and see the species supported throughout the year and the techniques we use to support wildlife on campus.
NEW Streatham Campus Biodiversity Trail
The Streatham Campus continues to provide a wide range of habitats which help support birds, insects, reptiles, mammals and aquatic life. The habitats should not be viewed in isolation, as they help form important links and wildlife corridors to other areas of open space not owned or maintained by the University. In this respect, the campus spaces make an important contribution to biodiversity in Exeter and the wider county of Devon.
We have developed a Streatham Campus Biodiversity Trail which can be downloaded from our website. Please do take a walk around the campus and see the species supported throughout the year and the techniques we use to support wildlife on campus.
We are in the process of developing a St Luke’s Campus Biodiversity Trail, which will also available to download.
Front Cover – Streatham Campus Biodiversity Trail
Biodiversity Strategy Streatham Campus
The Biodiversity Strategy Streatham Campus 2016-2021 can be downloaded from the Grounds website.
Wildflowers at St. Luke’s
Wildflowers at St Lukes
Update – Wildflower Meadow Rear Washington Singer
The new wildflower meadow that was planted at the rear of Washington Singer earlier this year as part of the Plan Bee Campaign (as reported earlier in Budding News) is flowering. It may be a Plan Bee Project but we give it an A*!
Bloomin’ lovely!
Plan Bee
Alice, Holly, Sam and Christine
A new project is under way on Streatham Campus to help boost the bee population. The Plan Bee project hopes aims to raise awareness of bee populations on campus through monitoring, communications, building small scale bee sanctuaries and planting more ‘bee-friendly’ plants.
Plan Bee, lead by Holly Dowles, a 3rd year student, alongside Christine Soper, Sustainability Co-ordinator for Psychology (Washington Singer), the Student Green Unit and the Grounds Team’s Central Estate team have recently created two new wildflower areas near Washington Singer and South Piazza ponds.
Holly Is hoping that if the areas are big enough, they would be eligible for ‘Bee World’ status through Friends of the Earth, making the space nationally recognised for supporting Bee and other insects.
Holly and Alice – Bee Saving Superheroes.