We started today with a splash in the Butterfly Garden at Kelvingrove Park with 4 Volunteers and a Bio-diversity Officer from Glasgow Council. The weather was a bit of a drowner (pun intended) but we still spotted some bees struggling along with the rare glimpse of a butterfly as it dried up later in the day. The garden needs constant attention but it is worth it because of the diversity of bees and butterflies that pollinate the area – the project is a great way to portray to local residents that conservation does produce great results. Bind weed among other weeds is a problem in the garden – bind weed in particular as it is invasive and constricts flora, the nectar rich plant life being the main focus. It was a diligent morning but everyone kept in high spirits and the day passed quickly – an impressive amount of weeds were removed within hours.
Below is great example of Kelvingrove when the weather is nicer.
After working hard we had a nice lunch hidden away in the TCV van as to avoid the almost torrential rain. We took our lunch slightly earlier as you don’ t want to lose enthusiasm and morale in poor weather. It is often the case that when you look after the well being of the volunteers first they enjoy the project and they don’t feel pressured to work in harsher conditions, allowing them to enjoy themselves.
Around 50 minutes later we went further uphill to plant some native wild flowers in the meadows. The Glasgow City council have approved loads of wild flower planting all through Summer – we are planting still in Autumn due to the soil being drier earlier in the Summer. Scottish wild flowers are again nectar rich and attract various species of butterfly and bee. The recent rainfall has permeated through the soil making it softer resulting in effortless wild flowers planting – thus in turn having a lot more fun than earlier in the day. The park is full of curious customers in the form of dogs which always puts a smile on everyone’s faces. We were finished relatively quickly so we then moved on to some dock flower removal.
Picture below of native wild flower in bloom.
We had planted all of our wild flowers relatively fast so we then moved on to removing dock flower. The dock flower is seeding right now and due to it being invasive it spreads over a large area. This took us the rest of the afternoon before leaving slightly earlier than usual – we had completed all our tasks so it feels good to reward peoples hard work and conservation zeal by leaving earlier. We thanked everyone for coming out and it seemed like everyone had a fun time considering the rainy start we had.
Dock Flower
