Marden Horticultural Society (MHS) members are using their green fingers to germinate seeds of scarce wild plants to be planted out to re-stock meadows. The plants are carefully chosen from local farmland because their range has been restricted by the agricultural intensification and land use changes that have taken place since WWII. They still survive locally but some can only spread slowly if left to natural means. Seeds are collected and nurtured in members’ greenhouses, potting sheds and gardens – and, in some cases, refrigerators!
Their skills are already paying dividends as young specimens of Dyers Greenweed, Devil’s-bit Scabious and Wild Service (Chequer) trees for example are now ready for restocking wild places around our village.
