Joe Boyle from our Giving Nature a Home team tells us about the Urban Green Connectors project and plans to improve some of Glasgow's greenspaces for wildlife and people.
The Urban Green Connectors project is about enhancing greenspaces for people and wildlife, particularly pollinators like bees and butterflies. By improving active travel routes and ecological connections between greenspaces, we can also encourage people and other animals to move across the city. The project is a partnership with Glasgow City Council, funded by NatureScot’s Biodiversity Challenge Fund, and runs across southwest Glasgow from Cardonald to Darnley, covering the entire G53 postcode. We are working closely with community groups across this area to make sure we are reflecting the needs of local people. After surveying the area to find out what already grows there and running some community consultation sessions, we are piecing together a map of the sites where we can have the highest impact.
The project hinges on bringing people together to decide how they would like to improve their local greenspaces for wildlife and the local community. On Saturday the 4th of December we hosted our first volunteer planting day as a public drop-in workshop in Rosshall Park. We sowed seed and planted wildflowers to improve a large meadow area (3200m2) which had been selected for works by the Friends of Rosshall Park. Despite the persistent rain we managed to plant 1500 perennial wildflowers of ten species (meadow cranesbill, common daisy, devil’s-bit scabious, birds-foot trefoil, cowslip, common selfheal, common valerian, meadow buttercup, ragged robin, common knapweed), which will establish over the winter and blossom next year. We also sowed 50m2 of yellow rattle, also known as “meadow maker”, to improve the conditions for the plants around it.
We chose our species carefully to best support wildlife, especially pollinators. The wildflowers we’re planting produce lots of pollen and nectar and have a long flowering period to make sure there is a consistent nectar supply for much of the year. Most wildflowers do best when nutrients are limited and grasses can’t outcompete them for space and resources. Some plants also have a stress response to limited nutrients where they focus on reproduction and produce more flowers. Yellow rattle is a hemi-parasitic plant with “vampiric roots” which steals nutrients directly from grasses and other wildflower competitors, as well as producing lots of nectar for animals. We sowed it in patches across our site to help create good habitat throughout the meadow. When the meadows are cut we will remove the cuttings to make sure the soil doesn’t reabsorb too many nutrients from the decomposing cuttings. By selecting the right plants and gradually reducing the soil nutrients, we can encourage a great diversity of flowers throughout the year and support a wide range of wildlife.
These areas of meadow are part of the habitat network we are creating across the Urban Green Connectors project area, which will also include wildlife-friendly hedging and spring bulbs. The meadows feed pollinators, who perform a vital job in the ecosystem by helping plants reproduce but are also a food source for many birds and other wildlife. The spring bulbs are some of the first flowering plants, meaning they can support the local ecosystem from early in the year when many of the early-emerging pollinators will be struggling for food. Hedges are fantastic for wildlife too, a good mix of native species such as hawthorn and blackthorn will feed animals with leaves and fruits, supporting species such as solitary bees, house sparrows, and fieldfare. Hedges are also brilliant shelter for insects, small mammals, birds, and sometimes amphibians, with well-protected nooks and crannies for nests, dens, and even setts. Because of the food and protection they offer, hedges help connect habitats together and are often used as corridors for animals to travel along. Supporting our urban wildlife has massive ecological and social benefits, and we hope that this project will connect people with their local greenspaces and show that we can all work together to improve these areas.
We are still looking for volunteers, community links, and suggestions for the greenspaces. If you would like to volunteer or help design your local area, particularly along the Brock Burn or near Crookston Castle, please get in touch via joe.boyle@rspb.org.uk. If you are involved with a school or community group and would like us to come in for a planting session, we’d love to hear from you, otherwise we hope to see you some of you at a volunteer session in the spring!
For more information about the project from Glasgow City Council, read more here .