Back in December we were disappointed when the SEA Hub had to temporarily close, and our Christmas social was going to be cancelled. Our group is a mostly hardy bunch who love being outdoors in our green spaces, so we decided to meet outside instead. On a mild December evening we took torches and lanterns to light up the pitch-black evening at the Shoal, which turned out to be a perfect meeting point for some mulled wine and baked goodies, and quite invigorating hearing the sound of the waves in the background.
It was great to have a chat about some of the plans and ideas for renaturing Seaford in 2022. We have starting to firm up our plans to recruit renaturing champions. This could be on an informal ad hoc basis, perhaps letting us know about interesting green spaces, and plant and wildlife sightings in various green spaces.
For example one “On the Verge” member Melene has done just that during 2021, giving us a wealth of information about the plant and wildlife species spotted at many local green spaces around the town throughout the year. Some of those spaces are really quite tiny and easily missed – like the area very near to Splash Point behind the fishing boats. This is somewhere you might not expect to see many plants, however Melene reported “a beautiful carpet of Mayweed, White Clover, Bird’s-foot-trefoil, Thrift, Buckshorn Plantain and a tiny leaved Sandwort”.
“Boat park” garden
All these spaces can be important individually (due to their unique aspect and soil type) and also collectively as part of our green space corridors, that allow pollinators such as bees and butterflies, to move through the town between larger green spaces.
Can you guess where the following report was from in August? (Answer is below)
“More joined up and almost pretty, with Sea Lavender hugging about a third of the posts along the front edge. Fine grasses with Clovers and Bird’s-foot-trefoil (with a Common Carder bee) make a neat patch of lawn in places though the Ivy and Silver Ragwort from the bank may smother them. A stoat appeared but it was very breezy, so a Red Admiral did not appear on the Hemp Agrimony until another day. There was nearly a ‘hedge’ of Tree Mallow and Silver Ragwort plus Sea Beet, Knotgrass and naturalised Beach Aster from California”
Rottingdean sea lavender
Other plants spotted here included Ground-ivy, Medick, Buckshorn Plantain, Self-heal, Wild Carrot, Mouse-ear Hawkweed, Bramble and Wild Privet.
For larger green spaces managed by the council, we are planning to encourage small teams of volunteers to regularly check on a green space, and report back on any local issues (such as litter and vandalism). We also want to encourage observations of how biodiversity is improving. Formal surveys later in the year, will then have the results fed into an exciting new mapping project. We are hoping to get funds from the Cares lottery fund, towards surveying equipment and training, so that more people can get involved with this interesting work.
If you are interested in joining in, do get in touch!
Many thanks to Fran at Seaford Scene, for publishing this article
Answer to our green space teaser (written backwards) is: krapraC elkcuB