Marden Farmer Cluster Meets Wild About Garden Volunteers

On the 11th of May, Wild About Garden (WAG) volunteers joined Marden Farmer Cluster to learn about meadow creation. The day started with a tour of Marden Meadows, carpeted with green-winged orchid. Also known as the harlequin orchid, they display a fabulous variety of colour from deep purple to light pinks. We also saw adder’s tongue fern, a rare, inconspicuous fern, dotted around enjoying the un-improved pasture and damp meadow habitat.

Our tour guide for the day was Lou Carpenter, local farmer, member of Marden Wildlife Group and amateur botanist. Although you would think her modest as she really knows her plants! Lou took us from Marden Meadows to her own meadows next door. She is paid through government schemes to improve land for wildlife which, she says, would otherwise have been unprofitable. Though her meadows are younger, she already had carpets of her own green-winged orchid and she was pleased to show us Myosotis discolor, the changing forget-me-not. The Botanical Society for Britain and Ireland list this plant as an “axiophyte” - indicators of habitat considered important for conservation, such as ancient woodlands, clear water and species-rich meadows. Her work was inspiring to the WAG volunteers and just goes to show that making meadows takes time but there are delightful surprises awaiting those with patience.

In it together

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” (Robert Swan). So, we can all do our bit, however small, but when you work together the impact is so much greater. That’s exactly how Marden Farmer Cluster, Marden Wildlife group and the local Horticultural Society are approaching restoring the natural landscape in and around their village.

By working together, they are re-creating a landscape that is sustainable and beneficial to the natural world and helps farmers restore and use their land in a way that can benefit farming and the local community. It is bringing people together, though their starting points initially seem quite different, they come together in the appreciation of the challenges that face our farmers.

Meadows and woodlands in the area are being restored and rejuvenated, full of colour and the sound of nature, and that thriving environment that supports farming practice through pollination and pest control. It is creating a network of habitat around and through the village, through the use of meadow and grassland, woodland, hedges, community spaces, verges and gardens. It is bringing back a landscape that was once so familiar but now increasingly lost. If we want a healthy countryside, farmers and local groups like these need support, and by working together and understanding what that management means and needs, we can all work to that end. Well done, Marden!

Photos below from the day were all taken by Marden farmer, Anne Tipples, who is also an excellent photographer. Thanks Anne for sharing these photos with us.