Mr. Peanut is taking a break this week, after a busy few months (but don’t worry, he’ll be back soon!).
Instead, just for today, I am posting about a news article I read this week regarding the recent wave of Guerilla Gardening. The ‘re-wilding’ of urban landscapes through the somewhat haphazard planting of native wildflower seed bombs.
I have always viewed this as a positive thing, for both native pollinators and biodiversity in general and I am well and truly on the bandwagon! This is made evident by the web page I have dedicated to updating anyone who will listen on the progress of my Beebomb garden.
That was until I came across a recent article in The Irish Times; an Expose’ on the so called “Trinity Debate” by Michael Viney. Apparently, some botanists from Dublin’s Naturalists’ Field Club (DNFC) are not wild about Trinity College’s newly planted wildflower meadow….
Their argument raises some valid points including the displacement of native species and the potentially unnatural composition of species that grow from a typical wildflower mix.
The article states-
“To the DNFC ,“simply introducing colourful flowers … at best provides a short-term food supply for some common insects that are not threatened.
The typical mix of plant species contained in “wildflower” seed packets “is never found growing together in the wild”. Natural habitats, formed by local conditions, grow the plants adapted to them and these colonise the ground by natural means. Conserving natural habitats should be the priority. And even mowing old lawns less often can allow native species already in the soil bank to flower and set seed.“
Given I recently wrote about the importance of ecological context in crop breeding and commercial seed production, in an effort to be slightly less hypocritical I thought it important to give some air time to the lesser known, CON side of the current ‘Re-Wilding’ argument.
So please, have a read of the Irish Times article and feel free to tell me your thoughts on the Trinity Debate in the comment section below!