Wildflowers

Do you have a wild spot in your spaces? An area undisturbed, full of long grasses, logs and maybe even a water source such as a pond? with so many new house and building being built every year the natural wild areas are dwindling. This along with the use of pesticides has damaged the beautiful spaces and in turn effected the our native pollinators including butterflies, moths and bees. Even the smallest of small wildflower and long grassed areas are proving to help  sustain insects that pollinate our food crops. 

There have been ongoing 'save the bees' campaigns over the years and many TV programmes focused on raising the awareness and the importance of our pollinators, it has been a topic discussed and raised by our children within all of our nurseries, with this in mind we have created small spaces using old bath tubs, raised planters to sow wildflower and grass seeds, we have let areas of grass grow really long which has attracted more bird species, grasshoppers and more and offered a sensory experience for our younger children who have completely immersed themselves in the moment by stroking and exploring the grasses. 

They look absolutely beautiful too, it the children are naturally drawn to the area, looking for insects, smelling the scents of the flowers, running their hands through the long grasses. It has been wonderful to see them grow from such tiny seeds. The Royal Horticultural Society offer this advice about wildflowers if you are interested in growing your own. Link here

You will need...

• A grassy area or large containers such as a bath tub or large pots
• From our understanding they do not like rich soil so any top soil will do
• Wildflower seeds, there are lots of online businesses that you can contact and they provide special wildflower mixes for your own spaces, some for shady areas, sunny, dry and hot or wet and boggylink here