Grounds team keep campus in bloom

Friday, 03 September 2010

The dahlias outside Whiteknights House

The Grounds team are busy throughout the year, carrying out important maintenance work on the University's 300 acres of parkland.

This week Deputy Head of Grounds, Giles Reynolds, and the team have plans for some of the main planted areas on campus: "As part of our efforts to work in a more sustainable way, the dahlias outside Whiteknights House are to become a permanent feature; this means a reduction in peat use and other materials along with the benefit of lower annual costs.

"Dwarf tulips are to be planted in between the dahlias, and there will be the addition of tubs filled with colourful bedding plants near the main entrance."

The team will also be adding some spring colour to the beds and planters in front of Old Whiteknights House and the HumSS Café.

He continues, "We have recently completed some important major safety works on the University owned trees on Wilderness Road. A traffic control system was put in place for the day whilst crown lifting and dead wooding was carried out on many of the trees."

Across campus most meadow areas have been cut and collected for hay by a local farmer; however some have been left to allow continued flowering, and to provide seed heads as a source of food and habitat for a variety of animals and plants. For example, knapweeds flower late after the hay cut and provide a great source of nectar for species such as the six-spot Burnet moth.