Wildflowers on the byway

The byway behind Firs Close is Wiltshire Council land – with the exception of the play area which is owned by the Parish Council – it is however maintained by the Parish Council for Wiltshire Council.

This land is calcareous grassland, more commonly known as chalk downland, an increasingly rare and fragile habitat. The majority of the grass is cut only in the autumn to allow the natural flora to establish during the summer and set seed in the autumn.

The drainage work on the byway during the summer of 2024 presented an opportunity to enrich the bio-diversity of this area. With the grass being removed over the central area, the Parish Council saw this as an ideal time to sow a mix of wildflower seeds suited to the poor nutrient chalk based soil.

As well as the wildflower seed, native daffodil bulbs were planted – 200 bulbs of Tenby Daffodil Bulbs (Narcissus obvallaris) and 200 Narcissus pseudonarcissus lobularis. Wild daffodils are much smaller than the cultivated varieties.

During the summer of 2025, the disturbed ground benefitted mostly grasses, but some of the wild poppies that were sown, did flower. Further areas of wildflowers wers sown in the autumn of 2025 and another 400 wild daffodils bulbs planted.

The long hot dry summer of 2026, has seen the wildflowers mature, initially oxeye daises but during July more varied displays came into flower.

Oxeye daisies, ribwort plantain/knockheads, yellow rattle and common restharrow.

 

Poppies, oxeye daisies, ribwort plantain/knockheads.

 

Oxeye daisies, yellow rattle, common knapweed and cow parsley.

 

Cow Parsley, poppies, common knapweed.

To the left of the image, there is a distinct line showing the difference between the wildflowers sown by the Parish Council and the area of the ground that wasn’t distrurbed by the drainage works in 2024.

The wildflower areas sown by the Parish Council are indistinguishable from the other areas of wildflowers on the byway that have occurred naturally. This is exactly what the Parish Council set out to achieve, and not to introduce species that wouldn’t have occurred naturally.

Further wild daffodils will be planted in the Autumn of 2026 as well as more wildflower seed selected especially for the calcareous ground.