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Thurnham  Church

The Church of St Thomas and St Elizabeth, Thurnham  LA2 0DT

This site, which we first started in 2018, has proved a great success.  This is a field adjacent to the church burial ground which we are slowly transforming into a flower rich meadow.  One area has been cultivated and sown with annual flower seeds whilst the rest has had wildflowers planted, such as cowslips, primroses and foxgloves.

 

The management regime involves one cut a year after the flowers have set seed and is then raked off to reduce grass competition.  

Many weeks of cool wet weather have caused much growth in vegetation so we needed to strim pathways around the centre flower bed, where we also had to remove invasive plants such as dock, thistles and creeping buttercup.

Weeding, clearing, and raking in spring to prepare bed for this season's seeds.

Plenty more growth by October after much rain, so cutting and raking done.  Grass removed from main meadow flower area to reduce fertility and increase diversity.

There was plenty of growth to greet us in August.  We removed some invasive plants such as dead knapweed and dock and cleared patches for new wildflower seeds.  The pathways were strimmed and raked.

We mowed and strimmed pathways around the meadow and removed some of the invasive plants, leaving a mixed variety of colourful flowers.

Sexton beetle
Seeds sown
Pete watering
Still busy!
David mowed pathway
Weeding wildflower bed

A lovely day for preparing the meadow and adding seeds and cornfield annuals to help pollinating insects

Tidying edge

The central bed needed the border tidying up and some of the dead knapweed removing.

Raking

Some strimming was done and a pathway round the area was mown and raked off.

Pete's photos show lots of colour in the central plot this year

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On Sunday 18th April 2021 we were able to have 6 volunteers out again and we all enjoyed a good day at the Thurnham wildflower meadow.

 

Due to the hard effort put in by Pete over the winter months, the main planting area had already been dug over. We just needed to reduce a few of the more enthusiastic plants, rake the soil in the area and then sow seeds.

 

We are most grateful for the generosity of two local ladies who donated garden tokens and we supplemented this by buying a few more plants, all of which should attract bees, insects and butterflies over the summer.

Colourful knapweed
Socially distanced!

Here's our socially distanced group when we checked on the meadow and slightly extended the main wild flower area

End-of-season strim

Covid Autumn!  The paths were mown, the grass strimmed and the main plot weeded

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Thurnham wildflower meadow during its annual end-of season strim and removal of the cut grass to lower fertility. It looks pretty good!

Our first season's work in Thurnham in 2018

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