Tag: Verges

Counting on … day 109

15th July 2025

The strip of land that separates road from hedge/ fence/ wall of other boundary might be termed waste land – but that waste land has the capacity to be a thriving green corridor. Warwickshire County Council has developed a successful strategy for planting verges with wild flowers. (1) In York the banks abutting the city walls have also been successfully planted with wild flowers -but not without some opposition! (2)

Green corridors are important allowing plants, insects, and other creatures to migrate, forage and breed across a wider territory that improves the viability of the different species. Plant Life reports “Our road verges and green spaces have the potential to act as a sanctuary for wildflowers and a network of connective corridors across Great Britain’s 400,000 km of public road verges and almost  85,000 hectares of public green spaces.” (3) 

  1. https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/works-licences-permits/develop-wildflower-area
  2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn862vnq36po
  3. https://www.plantlife.org.uk/learning-resource/managing-road-verges-and-greenspaces/

31 Days Wild: 28th May 2025

Walking along a narrow and little used lane, I looked at the plants growing along the verge – a variety of grasses, buttercups and the occasional late dandelion, convululus (hedge and field varieties),  dock plants, cow-parsley and hogweed – all of which I’m sure are beneficial for wildlife. But what I can’t judge is whether this diversity of wild plants is good or not so good – it’s hard to judge what’s not there!

However I am encouraged by the following observation made by the Natural History Museum: “Road verges cover an enormous area in the UK – they span about 500,000 kilometres, equivalent to driving more than 12 times around the Earth! Their total area is thought to be slightly larger than the Lake District National Park. Museum botanist Fred Rumsey says, ‘The sheer scale of the road verge habitat in the UK is pretty mind-boggling. In terms of providing habitat for our threatened wildlife, this huge network of linear strips is increasingly important.’” (1)

Warwickshire Council has a scheme for improving biodiversity by focusing on encouraging wildlife friendly verges – https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/info/20855/biodiversity/2016/wildflower_verge_trial

(1) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/why-road-verges-are-important-wildlife-habitats.html