Summer is hotting up and so is our Bridford Wildlife Gardening Competition!
Only two weeks left to get your entry in (closing date 30th June), with judging taking place in the first week of August. No matter how small or large your wildlife gardening project, we’d love to hear from you. There are 3 classes: adults/children/smallholders, with a fabulous prize donated by local business for the best in each class. It’s so easy to enter: just click on this link:
https://form.jotform.com/kittyindevon/wildlife-gardening-competition
Time is running out to enter our Wildlife Gardening Competition!
Come on Bridford gardeners! There has been so much interest this year in creating more wildlife-friendly gardens. Even the winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show was about rewilding Britain’s landscape. We can all do our bit by providing a variety of different habitats in our gardens. Perhaps you have a mini-wildflower meadow, or a wildlife pond, or have planted a hedge where previously there was a fence. Whatever you have in your garden, please enter our competition. There are 3 great prizes: A meal for two at the Teign House Inn; A £25 voucher from Teign Valley Nursery and a Vegetable Box from Whippletree Farm. There are classes for adults, children and smallholders. But hurry, the closing date for entries is 30th June!
It’s easy to enter: just complete this simple online form:
https://form.jotform.com/kittyindevon/wildlife-gardening-competition
Bridford Parish Council Agenda 6th June 2022
Jubilee Picnickers are arriving
Jubilee Picnic Lunch and Party – Moved to Village Hall
With the weather not looking great for the afternoon, the Jubilee Picnic lunch and party will be in the village hall. See you there.
Wildlife in St Thomas Becket Churchyard
There’s more life in St Thomas Becket Churchyard than you might think!
Since at least medieval times this has been an important religious site and the plants that can be found here provide hints about the human influence on the site that get the imagination rolling. Here’s a few that spring to mind:
Yew trees are poisonous to livestock and are thought to have been planted to discourage grazing over these sacred areas. In some churchyards, the yew trees have been found to be older than the churches themselves!
Lichens are not a plant as such but a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi species. A variety of lichens grow on the headstones of the graveyard (with my untrained eye I counted at least 5 types). They grow very slowly 0.5– 8 mm/ year depending on the species. I noted one that was about 20cm wide, perhaps up to 400 years old?! I couldn’t read the engraving to confirm sadly. A school/ university project for someone in the village perhaps?
Grassland forms most of the habitat cover in the yard, but even this tells a story. Perhaps sown and re-sown many times during the church’s history and disturbed and mown countless times. The sweet vernal grass is flowing now – so called because it is sweet smelling when cut and comes up in the spring. Self-sown wildflowers are present that are considered “indicator species” of grasslands that have been modified/managed through human activity, with intriguing common names such as common cat’s-ear, ribwort plantain, hedge bedstraw, primrose, ladies’ smock and cuckoo pint. Curiouser are the plants found in the walls: navelwort, spleenwort and toadflax.
Then we have the garden flowers planted by loved ones lamenting lost ones: Spanish bluebell, grape hyacinth, daffodil, and tulips. Followed by some garden escapees that may well have made their own way to church: red valerian, honesty, and mind-your-own-business.
This great mixture of wild and garden plants provides a perfect opportunity for wild bees, hoverflies butterflies, moths and many more insects. These in turn feed other wildlife like hedgehogs, birds and bats – all the way up the food chain to birds of prey like the tawny owls that are regularly heard hooting around the village at night.
We are working with the churchyard guardians to enhance and protect this valued space for wildlife in the heart of the village. You can do the same in your garden, for example by leaving part of your lawn unmown until late summer to allow wildflowers to flourish. However small your project you are helping to increase the diversity of habitats which benefit wildlife. If you live in Bridford please consider entering our Wildlife Gardening Competition. Full details can be found in the Telephone Box, Bus Shelter, in the Village Hall or online here: https://bridfordvillage.co.uk/bridford-wildlife-gardening-competition/
Contact us: [email protected]
BRIDFORD ANNUAL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING 2022 DRAFT MINUTES
BRIDFORD PARISH COUNCIL MEETING DRAFT MINUTES 9TH MAY 2022
Moths to see in June
Our moth expert Sam Gray writes: The prominents are largish moths in the family Notodontidae that can commonly be found attracted to light during late spring and throughout the summer. They are thick bodied moths with dense ‘fur’ on the thorax and at the base of the legs. The wings are usually quite long and tapering towards the apex. When the wings are folded, the inner edge of both the wings come together over the moth with tufts of scales forming prominent spikes pointing upwards, hence the common name of the moths. The pattern of the forewings are subtle but really beautiful, with a blend of dark and pale colours creating distinctive patterns that help them to camouflage against tree bark and dead vegetation when at rest during the day. The jagged appearance of the Pale Prominent means that it is perfectly adapted to blend in with a broken piece of wood. The obvious palps at the front of the moth further exaggerate its ‘snapped twig’ appearance. Another example is the Iron Prominent, a dark moth with subtle yellow and red markings; it has clearly evolved to hide away on the ground amongst the leaf litter and soil.