Award-winning green-fingered Denbigh Community members have helped enhance a local wildflower meadow area.

Fresh off winning the 2023 Wales in Bloom town gold award and a Community Champion Award for group volunteer Judy Huxley, Denbigh in Bloom volunteers joined the Council’s Biodiversity team to add more colour and variety to the ATS roundabout.

The team is working with volunteers and groups across the county to plug plant at nine meadows.

Plug planting more flowers, grown at the Council’s tree nursery, at a number of sites will help create more colourful, diverse meadows and better biodiversity support for our local nature and communities.

Wildflowers in county meadows provide bees and other pollinators with food through the year which supports our own food chain. Taking away this habitat reduces support for nature’s pollinators, impacting on our own food chain as they support the growth of most of our fruit and vegetables

Denbigh in Bloom volunteers, who have won Gold and Best Town in Wales for the fourth consecutive time, have supported the growth of species on the ATS roundabout and have installed a log pile and bug hotel on the site to support insects. Working with the Biodiversity team, they have introduced the benefits of ‘not mowing’ to support the growth of wildflowers.

Lyndsey Tasker, Chair of Denbigh in Bloom, said: “Volunteers from Denbigh in Bloom were delighted to join Denbighshire County Council’s Biodiversity team to work on this plug planting scheme. We fully support schemes such as these in creating areas within our town which aim to attract a greater variety of insects and wildlife.”

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “Denbigh in Bloom have already done a fantastic job with the ATS roundabout site with the work they have carried out. I’m grateful to them for working with our Biodiversity team to carry out this enhancement that will help tackle the nature emergency and encourage more nature back into towns for residents to enjoy.”

A greener set of four wheels has rolled into the Council’s Tree Nursery to help improve plant and tree production.

The Council’s local provenance tree nursery at Green Gates Farm, St Asaph, funded by Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project and Local Places for Nature grant, has produced 13,000 wildflower plants and 11,500 trees this season.

Plants produced at the nursery will be taken to existing county wildflower meadows to help boost the range of species on the sites, add variety and colour to improve the look of each site for the local communities to enjoy and maintain and improve biodiversity.

The wildflower meadow areas and woodland creation sites where some of the trees grown will go, provide benefits for everybody, not just nature, with other community benefits including improved air quality, urban heat cooling, physical and mental wellbeing and areas of mixed interest for education and play.

To help improve production for next season around the tree nursery and maintain surrounding wildflower meadows, the Council’s Biodiversity Team has welcomed a greener piece of kit to reduce carbon emissions impact on the site.

An electric Avant loader will be used to help out with manual work at the nursery, including moving stock around on the site, maintaining the sustainable creation of compost for the nursery and maintaining nearby wildflower areas and meadow.

The electric machine, which has no carbon tailpipe emissions, is able to lift up to 900kg and is equipped with loading forks and loading bucket to help with moving items around the site and a grass mower for maintenance.

In addition, an electric Fiat e-Doblo van with a range of 175 miles will support the low emissions delivery of trees and plants from the nursery to other sites.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “The team at the nursery and the volunteers who come in to help out do a fantastic job in growing the plants and trees that will go out to sites to improve their look and feel for local communities and nature.

“These new no exhaust emissions additions will help move production along at the site and keep in with our efforts to keep carbon emissions low across the Council.”

Work has begun to enhance a number of Denbighshire wildflower meadows.

The Council’s Biodiversity team has started a programme of plug planting and enhancement work across ten meadows.

The meadows vary from site to site and usually contain a variety of native grasses and wildflowers. Wildflowers at our sites are mostly native perennial species which means they will come back every year and support the greatest amount of wildlife.

The work commenced at Meliden Embankment, Prestatyn to introduce more wildflowers to the site.

Plug planting more flowers, grown at the Council’s tree nursery, at a number of sites will help create more colourful, diverse meadows and better biodiversity support for our local nature and communities.

Bringing back and maintaining these wildflower meadow areas is an important step in helping to reverse the decline and increase local species richness and the Council has committed to capitalising on using its grassland areas for this purpose, where appropriate.

Wildflowers in county meadows provide bees and other pollinators with food across the year which supports our own food chain.

Without this habitat support for insects, nature’s pollinators would be less, impacting on our own food chain as these pollinators support the growth of most of our fruit and vegetables.

Wildflower meadow soil can also sequester as much carbon as woodlands, reducing greenhouse gases to help tackle climate change.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport and Biodiversity Champion said: “Enriching and enhancing the meadows with more plants, especially in urban areas, will help create better connected corridors to support nature to travel and pollinate other sites tackling the nature emergency and encouraging more nature back into towns for residents to enjoy.

“Enhancing the meadows also provides benefits for everybody, not just nature, with other community benefits including improved air quality, urban heat cooling, physical and mental wellbeing and areas of mixed interest for education and play.

“We are extremely grateful to the volunteers and our staff for helping introduce these plants to the sites selected that have been grown from seeds taken from existing flowers on our meadows."

Plug planting and other enhancement work is taking place at:

• Green Lane, Corwen
• ATS roundabout, Denbigh
• Parc Alafowlia Fields, Denbigh
• Maes Lliwen, Nantglyn
• Bastion Road Park, Prestatyn
• Meliden Embankment, Prestatyn
• Rhyl Coast Road
• Vincent Close, Rhyl
• Fern Way, Rhyl
• Llys Brenig Park, Rhyl

If you are interested in volunteering to help out with plug planting at a community site, there are a number of opportunities for you to get involved. Please email biodiversity@denbighshire.gov.uk for further details about how to get involved in the future.

A biodiversity project to support native Denbighshire wildflowers has exceeded last season’s results.

The Council’s local provenance tree nursery at Green Gates Farm, St Asaph, produced nearly 8,000 plants during its first growing season last year.

This project has been funded by the Welsh Government, through the Local Nature Partnerships Cymru ENRaW project and Local Places for Nature grant.

In 2023 the number of plants grown has passed last season by reaching 13,000 wildflowers.

These include ox eye daisy, knapweed, field scabious, selfheal, yarrow, wild carrot, red campion, bladder campion, buttercup, birds foot trefoil and ladies bedstraw.

Many of these wildflowers support a variety of different wildlife. For example, bird’s foot trefoil can provide food for 160 species of insects, encouraging shrews and lapwings to visit the plant, improving nature’s resilience in local communities.

The plants produced at the nursery will be taken to existing wildflower meadows in the county. These will help boost the range of species on the sites, add variety and colour to improve the look of each site for the local communities to enjoy and maintain and improve biodiversity.

Having more wildflowers on the meadows also gives greater support to pollinators who are important to the human food supply chain.

Wildflowers in county meadows provide bees and other pollinators with food across the year. On a summer’s day, an acre of meadow roughly holding three million flowers can produce nearly 1kg of nectar sugar supporting up to 100,000 bees.

Without this habitat support for insects, nature’s pollinators would be less, impacting on our food chain and most of fruit and vegetables produced may have to be artificially pollinated at cost and time.

The nursery has also increased its number of trees grown from 1,000 last season to 11,500 for 2023 which include pedunculate oak, sessile oak, sweet chestnut, silver birch, alder, wych elm and goat willow.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “A lot of hard work has gone into producing a larger number of plants and trees for 2023, from the initial collection of seeds last year to the care and attention to help these species grow.

“The volunteers we have had at the nursery have really helped us push forward with the project and I want to thank them and the biodiversity team for providing such a fantastic number of plants and trees that will continue our work to support and improve nature across the county.

“The meadows that these plants will call their new homes are for everyone, they support the creation of connected corridors for nature to thrive across our urban areas. The project has great support from our schools who are eager to follow and learn about how it not just helps nature but also our communities as well. The wildflower plants grown will help to add diversity and colour across our sites for the community to enjoy, along with the pollinators at risk who help put food on our tables.

“Given the time they need to establish, our meadows will be for the equal wellbeing of residents and wildlife to both enjoy now, and most importantly, for our future generations in the shape of our school pupils here in Denbighshire.”

A popular historic Llangollen attraction is lending a helping hand to local nature.

The Council’s Biodiversity team joined staff and volunteers at Plas Newydd to help create a stronger natural habitat for local pollinators to enjoy.

The historic home to Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby and gardens is maintained by the Clwydian Range & Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

Plug planting was carried out in the orchard and woodland area of Plas Newydd’s grounds as part of the site’s new Bee Friendly status which aims to support the recovery of bees and other pollinators.

The wildflowers will help create a more colourful, diverse and stronger biodiversity around the grounds for local nature and visitors to enjoy.

They will also provide bees and other pollinators with food through the year which supports our own food chain. Taking away this habitat reduces support for nature’s pollinators, impacting on our own food chain as they support the growth of most of our fruit and vegetables.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport and Biodiversity Champion said: “Plas Newydd is a great location for visitors and the local community to enjoy thanks to its rich history. It is also a fantastic place for nature to thrive thanks to the work carried out to maintain the beautiful gardens surrounding the house.

“The plug planting work carried out to increase the number of wildflowers on the site will really help tackle the nature emergency and encourage more nature back into the local area for residents to enjoy.”

Do you already have or would you like help creating a Bee Friendly area in your garden or on your land? The Council’s Biodiversity Team can offer advice and support in creating your Bee Friendly area and applying for Bee Friendly status. Please contact biodiversity@denbighshire.gov.uk to find out more.

More information about the Bee Friendly Scheme and how you can get involved can be found at: Wales Biodiversity Partnership - Bee Friendly (biodiversitywales.org.uk)