Cemetery Conservation

Over the past couple of months, me and mum have been attending the Havant Cemeteries Project sessions. Rachel Monorey and her team of volunteers (including me) have been improving the cemeteries around Havant as wildlife habitats. The first session was at New Lane Cemetery. The graves which were around one-hundred years old have curbstones round them to make a raised rectangular area for planting flowers in. By now wild grasses and some other plants had taken over, so our job was to clear all the weeds and fill the "raised-bed" with fresh compost and sow wildflowers such as Yellow-horned Poppy and Common Poppy, Chicory, Greater Knapweed, Cornflower, and Wild Daffodil. Hopefully, the graves will look lovely next year and I'm sure the fellows who have passed on would appreciate our work! I spent most of the time carting dug-up weeds from the graves to the compost heap and compost-heap and compost from the compost-heap to the graves in a wheelbarrow. Great fun! I'm not being sarcastic there. I actually really enjoyed it.

More than one-hundred years old!

Weeding

Hard work!

I accidentally disturbed a Red Ant nest.

The second session which was today was at Warblington Cemetery. I must say, it is a lot neater than the New Lane Cemetery was! (Only in the amount of unwanted plants though. I think the soil might be better for them there than at Warblington.) There is a great big wildflower meadow at the back, full of lovely plants (most of them are over now though) but the docks and burdocks are starting to invade. This session was spent digging up and removing the seed-heads of the two species. I tell you, those roots are so thick! A section of one looks more like a lump of  rock than a root. And so deep too. You would think they would come out of the ground like mini-trees in Australia! Getting constantly pricked by Spear Thistle is not exactly nice. There seemed to be an abundance of Red-tailed Bumblebees and plenty of Red Admiral, Small White, Common Blue, Large White, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Brimstone, and Orange Tip butterflies, trying to get the last of the nectar from the leftover blooms. Among the other animals seen or heard were:

female Staghorn Beetle or Stag Beetle
male Emperor Hawker Dragonfly
flock of twenty Blue Titmice
flock of sixteen Great Titmice
a female-male (molluscs are both) giant orange slug
lots of Common and Blue Earthworms
a Green Woodpecker or Yaffle (not sure of sex as it was flying fast)
noise of Greater Spotted Woodpecker drumming a tree
plenty of Wood Pigeons
male Collared Dove
male Stock Dove
female Tibellus oblongus Crab Spider
worker Buff-tailed and White-tailed Bumblebees
worker and queen Large Garden Bumblebee
Cockchafer Beetle or May-bug coming out of pupa
female Sparrowhawk hunting Great Titmice
male Kestrel hunting Field Vole
three Magpies (I get a girl!)
a flock of seventeen House Sparrows
two Field Mice
a Harvest Mouse

Giant orange slug

Getting right in

Chopping up docks for easier composting

Warblington  Castle



Shows just how important it is to conserve these vital wildlife habitats as well as making it look
welcoming for people visiting. If you would like to come along and help conserve all this flora and faunas' home, find out all the information at http://www2.tcv.org.uk/display/hcp.

Remember to keep a look out for any (I will be interested in anything) wildlife in your garden and on your trips out and post a comment about it on the blog. Good-bye peoples!