The Council mowers were busy in the last week of September, cutting the areas we planted last year and removing the cut foliage. They also prepared for our latest meadow on the South side of the main path, near the top. Our thanks to them for making our job so much easier.
On Saturday 1st Oct a hardy band of volunteers turned out to plant up this area with wild flower plug plants. For once, our Chairman’s ability to guarantee fine weather failed him slightly, so work began under threatening skies, but after a sharp shower, the sun soon came out and the work continued in sunshine, as we have come to expect.
In the next 3 hours, around 3,000 plug plants were planted, a phenomenal effort by more than 25 volunteers. 
It was very good to see many new faces – people who had heard about the Field and want to contribute. Welcome!
Many people have asked where our plants come from and why we plant these particular flowers….
The flowers are largely grown from seed collected by volunteers and nurtured in the Council’s poly tunnels on White Lund. The young plants are then hardened off in their pots in back gardens on Freehold. This is a massive undertaking and we are extremely grateful to our member Richard Evans who organises all this. (Note: Plug plants of a reasonable size can easily cost £5 each on the internet, so this saves us an absolute fortune).
The species are all established in the wild locally. This is why our Field is not planted with showy poppies, cornflowers etc, as you don’t see these much locally. The variety of flowers is important as each flower has a place in the local eco-system, supporting different butterflies, insects etc. (See list below).
Finally our thanks to ‘Jack’ 
who was clearly not impressed by the effort the volunteers were putting in and decided to help out!
Below is a list of the flowers that were planted on Saturday.
- Autumn Hawkbit,
- Betony
- Bird’s Foot Trefoil (and Greater Bird’s Foot Trefoil)
- Cat’s Ear
- Clover (red)
- Common Knapweed
- Great Burnet
- Meadow Cranesbill,
- Meadow Vetchling
- Ox-eye daisy
- Ragged Robin
- SelfHeal
- Sneezewort
- Tufted Vetch
- Water Mint
