24/4/08: PLAYING THE TURF ACCOUNTANT / MINING BEES

OK, so there are times when keeping turf short is a good idea. Another fairly modern development with a good native flora in un-fenced front garden lawns that I like to keep an account of, is that bounded by White Tree Road, Fallodon Way and Northumbria Drive in Henleaze.

There’s a lot of Parsley Piert in Wildcroft Road. A patch of Thyme-leaved Speedwell was noticed in one garden, with a spike showing one of the small but attractive whitish flowers with blue-violet veining on the upper petal. This is a somewhat inconspicuous species that I’ve often found around the margins of mown grass in various city parks. There’s quite a lot in the one on nearby Fallodon Way.

There were a couple of shoots of Hoary Cress and some Black Medick in a Fallodon Way grass verge.

An extensive display of Ground Ivy in flower brightened a lawn in Remenham Park. Several gardens here have Spotted Medick, with a more or less prominent black ‘V’ in the centre of each leaflet, and toothed stipules, in their front lawns. The yellow flowers are small and few, and were seen on one plant where its shoots were spreading out across the pavement.
The displays will soon be enlivened by the likes of Field Madder, Cut-leaved Cranesbill and Bird’s-foot Trefoil.

Mining Bees, first spotted last year, were back in residence in a strip of dry bare earth at the foot of a white wall on White Tree Road, behind which is a tall conifer hedge. It’s necessary to stand back a little so that they feel secure enough to move in, land and disappear down their neat circular-entranced holes.