Coronavirus: Blockade ‘could boost wildflowers’

A plant charity predicts a boost for wildflowers because some councils have stopped mowing verges and parks during the Covid-19 crisis.

Plantlife has been urging councils for years to cut grass less frequently.

He also wants them to delay cutting until the flowers have had a chance to plant.

The charity says it has seen a change in attitudes in recent years, but some councilors still say its citizens prefer well-groomed lawns and verges.

Now, Plantlife’s preliminary investigation suggests that municipal shutdown has been one of the first activities to be cut under the crisis.

This is partly because staff are sick or isolating themselves, and partly to save money as budgets are reduced.

Plantlife’s Trevor Dines told BBC News that an increase in public support for wildflowers had already persuaded some authorities to restrict logging.

Empty containers

He said a search on local authorities’ websites and on social media suggested that more advice is now being shaken up in a policy change so that they can relocate ground staff to services like emptying containers.

He said: “We have seen an increase in members of the public complaining that their councils are cutting daisies. These kinds of comments used to be outweighed by people complaining about the sloppy edges of the grass, but it seems the balance has shifted.

“Obviously we are extremely concerned about the Covid crisis and we want it to end as quickly as possible. But if the councils change their methods because of the crisis, they might find that public support wins, which would be good for the future. ”

Among the tips that register changes due to the Covid crisis are:

• Lincolnshire “Lawn mowing and garbage collection are among the nonessential services that are being reduced.”
• Flintshire “All council maintenance, lawn mowing and horticulture operations will be suspended until further notice.”
• Stockton-on-Tees Township “Lawn mowing will be limited to minimal levels with the exception of areas where it is necessary to ensure public safety, for example, to maintain lines of sight at road crossings.”
• Newcastle – “The cutting of grass and the maintenance of the bush bed will cease for the moment.”
• Wigan – “The maintenance of the non-essential grass cut will be suspended in the foreseeable future. We have moved quickly to redistribute staff to front-line services such as garbage collections. “

Plantlife wants the councils to delay felling until late August or early September until the plants have been planted.

Meanwhile, the reduction in traffic during the Covid-19 crisis will produce another benefit for wildflowers.

Typically, the roadsides are drenched with nitrogen emissions from vehicle exhausts. This fertilizes the world’s toughest plant species, which can harness nitrogen to grow and outperform the most delicate wildflowers.

Dines said: “There has been a phenomenal change in air quality, we can see much more clearly in the distance. The lack of contaminants is going to help wildflowers on the edge. “

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