Down Grange Meadow & Hedgerow

At last summer is here - and everything is blooming, what a great floral display! This year's spectacular offering includes more orchids than we have seen in a long time - some in Down Grange Meadow but even more, much more on Basingstoke's main conservation sites - Old Down Wildlife Park and Black Dam and Crabtree Park.
They are mostly Pyramidal orchids ( please don't pick they do not survive as cut flowers) with occasionally a Common Spotted Orchid
and the rarer Bee Orchid ( an early flowerer and so now mostly gone over)

Its time to change the picture - Spring is around the corner - snowdrop time!
There are many snowdrops along the hedgerow.

The Group will be holding its AGM on 10th December at 3.00pm when we will be reviewing progress for this year and discussing changes to take us into the next phase of managing The Orchard and Down Grange Meadow. You can join by Zoom if you would like to - PM us to receive the zoom link details.

First session of this season in the Meadow will be on Thursday 5th October 2.00 - 4.00pm..
If you fancy a little fresh air and gentle exercise, join us at the Homesteads road entrance.
For those only free at weekends to join us, we will be running some taster sessions on Sundays in October- November - watch out for dates here and on posters at the entrances.

Summer's over and we would normally switch our banner picture to an Autumn theme - but we don't yet have a good picture of the Meadow in Autumn. Are there any local photography fans with anything suitable?

After a break of 3 years due to covid, conservation volunters have starte wildflower seed collecting again on our best sites. The seed is used to enhance the bio-diversity of other green spaces in Basingstoke.
Wildflower seed collecting on The Meadow, Down Grange has started. The first species being collected are :
Yellow Rattle, Cats Ear, Bladder Campion, Common vetch, and Goats Beard.
The Cowslip and Garlic Mustard will be ready soon.
Join us on Sunday 9th July 2.30 - 4.00pm to find out what is involved and lend a hand.

A late Spring, but so far a wonderful flower year ... starting with the cowslips.
We did a lot of work last October to prepare for an enriched flower meadow in '23 - lets hope the yellow rattle, marjoram, St John's wort and cranesbill appear in the next couple of months!

Is Spring here, or not? The snowdrops seem to be convinced, great show this year ... but they are undetered by chilly ground. The snowdrops along the Hedgerow ( west side) which started at the north end 10 years ago have almost reached the south end - with a little help from their friends. So next year perhaps some on the east side of the hedgeline?

Blackthorn is one of the earliest shrubs to blossom in spring, being a member of the plum family. It is often confused with Hawthorn, even though they flower at different times. The way to tell which one is which is straight forward. Blackthorn has white blossoms that appear first on bare black stems from early March through to April. By contrast, Hawthorn can have a range flower colours, from white, pale pink through to red and the blossoms only appear after the leaf burst in May.
The Latin name for Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) translates as “Spiky plum”, and it certainly is spiky! We often get Community Payback to do Blackthorn removal for us, and we usually need to give them tough leather riggers gloves to use as they are often supplied with thin gardening gloves which are no match for the spines!
These long spines can be put to good use in constructing hedgerows where the twigs interlock and provide a handy natural barrier to keep livestock secure.
There is a host of folk law surrounding the Blackthorn, especially in Ireland. It has a reputation as one of the “witch-trees” of the countryside, not least because the spines can puncture skin very easily, which have a tendency to turn septic, giving rise to fairytales in which girls “prick their finger” and fall under a spell. It is associated with witch-craft and it is called the “Dark crone of the woods” due to black bare stems seen in winter
Being an early flowerer, it provides a useful source of nectar for bees, such as, masonry, mining and queen bumble bees. It is also used by a host of moths as a food plant for their eggs and caterpillars. These include the lackey, magpie, common emerald, swallow-tailed and yellow-tailed moths.
The appearance of Blackthorn blossom is sometimes associated with a cold spell, just as we were thinking winter was over - hence the warning “Beware the Blackthorn Winter”. The white blossom having the appearance of the shrub covered in frost or snow.
In autumn, the Blackthorn produces the small dark blue or black plums, called sloes. These are eaten by the larger thrushes, such as the Mistle Thrush. Hawfinches can also tackle these fruits. For sloe gin, the fruits need to be “bletted”, which means the flesh has started to break down after the first frosts. However, this process can be accelerated, by putting the collected fruit in a freezer! The jury is out as to the quality of gin to use. Some say, use the cheapest as using expensive gin is a waste of money. A good guide is, if it’s good enough to drink with tonic, it’s OK for making sloe gin!
As a Conservation Group, we have mixed feelings about Blackthorn. It spreads by runners and if unchecked can get out of hand quickly. It is also, literally a pain to remove! Our best approach is to use “poppers” to remove as much of the stem and runner roots as possible. This is best done when the ground is damp or even wet, hence we do this work in late winter or very early spring, long before nesting starts.

Roe Deer s**t? It appears to be in a laterite as there at least four other "deposits" of various ages in the immediate vicinity. This was taken last weekend and was quite damp/shiny so recent?

Down Grange Meadow & Hedgerow updated their address.

Good year for Primroses - this is in one of the new triangles, scaped and reseeded 2014/5

Down Grange Meadow & Hedgerow is now on WhatsApp.

Down Grange Meadow & Hedgerow updated their business hours.