Wildflower planting succes!

I would like to say a BIG thank you to all the volunteers from TCV, Stirling ranger volunteer group and the eco group from Fallin primary school who helped us plant 850 wildflower plug plants and 1kg of wildflower seed around Fallin Bing yesterday. The wildflower plug plants included Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and Common dog violet (Viola riviniana) that went into the meadow and Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum) which was planted into woodland. The wildflower seed mix included a diverse range of perennials including Bush vetch (Vicia sepium) and Field scabious (Knautia arvensis) and biennials including Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and Vipers bugloss (Echium vulgare). By planting a diverse range of native species of different flower shape and colour that will flower at different times during the year, this will not only improve wildflower species diversity within the meadow but will help provide a wide range of food plants for pollinating insects.

TCV and volunteers through Stirling Ranger service planting wildflowers into the meadow.

The volunteers had a great time planting wildflowers especially with the sun shining.

I have to admit that I only planted 3 plug plants yesterday but that was because I had to nip away for half an hour and when I came back half of the plants were already planted! As the volunteers did such a fantastic job and because we were really lucky with the weather I took the volunteers for a walk around the bing and then up to the top to show them the amazing view.

View of Wester Moss from the top of Fallin.

The eco-group from Fallin primary came along in the afternoon and planted some Red campion (Silene dioica) into the meadow and kept bringing me lots of worms and caterpillars that they were finding. At least we have chosen a good meadow to plant our wildflowers in. I look forward to seeing the plants (hopefully in flower!) in a couple of months.

Our third visit to Fallin Bing through this project will be on Monday the 24^th of June and we will be removing birch scrub from around the bing and creating habitat piles for wildlife. Everyone is welcome to attend and for more information can contact myself for more information at 01786 447504 or at suzanne.bairner@buglife.org.uk.

I hope we will be lucky with the weather again!