To visit Clydebank’s Melfort Park is to glimpse the possible. Not so long ago this was the site of a demolished school, out of bounds and rubble strewn. Fast forward to West Dunbartonshire Council accessing the Green Infrastructure Strategic Intervention Fund and you have a wonderful community park that embraces active travel, biodiversity, community growing and inviting green spaces.
But don’t just take my word for, Gillian Neil is the busy West Dunbartonshire Council biodiversity officer and knows the park and its aspirations well. Providing a better site for biodiversity was always a key target, but there is more to doing that than often meets the eye. It certainly isn’t a case of simply scattering bags of seed here and there.
“People might be surprised to learn that at Melfort Park there have been four different types of wildflower mixes planted on various plots, as well as some naturalised bulb planting,’” she explains. “An early conversation for us was about how we establish wildflower meadows and what we were trying to create or replicate. That was an important discussion. Sometimes you are trying to create a nice pictorial meadow that is just lovely flowers and you get a great display every year. However, in some instances you are trying to recreate the good biodiverse elements which were previously there. Melfort Park posed a further challenge in that we had to protect the site against undue disturbance due the amount of asbestos found. To do this the site had to be capped which unfortunately meant the demise of the much of the existing vegetation which had lovely specimens naturally occurring on the brownfield site. This included species such as kidney and common vetch, black medic and meadow vetchling. After the capping was complete, we brought in agricultural top soil, and it was that top soil which was then seeded with the four different mixes in four distinct plots.”
“We are about three years down the line now and some of the plots are being dominated by one or two species. Ordinarily with these kinds of meadows the traditional approach is that in the first couple of years you get them established, and look to supress anything that might become dominant. What happened here of course is that the Covid pandemic cut across all our normal monitoring and adapting opportunities in those early years. Following normal practices was impossible, which allowed some of the less desirable dominant plants to gain a foothold.
“Typically, the basic principle is that in the first year of a pictorial or wildlife meadow you sow a perennial mix with an added annual mix. In the first year the annuals show while the perennials are getting established. In the second year the perennials show better, although folk can feel a little disappointed as it doesn’t often match the first year’s bright and bold display. What you should do really is stick to a low sowing rate – pictorial and wildflower meadows probably only really require just two to four grams per square metre – much less than in a normal grass mix. And if you go beyond this you don’t leave enough bare soil for the annual seeds to drop onto and germinate on for the next year. Many annuals are prolific seeders due to their short life span this is their reproductive technique, so you have to leave enough bare ground for contact to be made to continue getting annuals coming through in the subsequent years”
The team in West Dunbartonshire can now survey the site more regularly, especially this summer, now that things are normalised. This will allow two things to be measured. Firstly it will allow the team to see what has established that was in the original mix, and secondly to assess what has potentially come in with the soil that was that was brought in. Although councils tend to order sterile soil, sometimes this isn’t actually 100% sterile and surprises can emerge. If it was purely a wildflower and grass mix then a subsoil substrate, rather than a topsoil, might work better as it is already nutrient deplete, which creates more favourable growing conditions for many of our native flora, as demonstrated by the broad range of species mix on the former demolished school site prior to the works. However, in this instance, we also wanted trees and some bulbs planted onsite too and they require topsoil.
“The other thing we will do,” explains Gillian “is establish if the right mix has been put in the right location. Although you can buy specific mixes off the shelf these days – like a wetland mix, or a pond mix — they might not always suit exactly the conditions you have on your own particular site. On reflection I’d say a site like Melfort Park probably needs an 80% grassland meadow with maybe 20% wildflowers coming through. But whatever your intentions and hopes, you have to be realistic about these things and accept that it can take several years to get your meadow right, and even then the job isn’t over, you need to keep on top of the maintenance. No meadow will be exactly the same from year to year. Ultimately what you have growing in year 5 will be substantially different to the mix you have sown as the annuals reduce in frequency and the perennials respond to the specific site conditions.
You have to continue to deplete the nutrients from the meadow until it establishes, otherwise the species which thrive on a more nutrient rich soil will dominate and you will lose your meadow mix. “To help us achieve our goals we have brought in a machine called a flail collector. This basically connects to a tractor, and is run over the grasslands at the end of the season once the seeds have set, lifting the cuttings to be taken off site. The aim is to deplete the soil of nutrients, as native grasslands and wildflowers prefer nutrient depleted soils.”
Clearly it’s not an exact science creating a flourishing meadow. There is the issue of seeing if what you planned takes, agreeing on a mowing regime with the operatives, and keeping a close eye on what is happening in case plans have to be amended.
“We rely on a team effort to note anything gaining a foothold that ought not to be there,” notes Gillian, “In those cases we will have to cut on a more regular basis to keep some species in check.”
At the end of the day Gillian and the team can take comfort that what is happening is pretty much what was planned, despite the challenges.
Melfort Park is far better than just a bland rye dominated amenity grassland plot. That is something councils are increasingly trying to get away from. “If anyone asked me if what we have here is better than what was here before, then I’d say ‘Yes’. We can point to 40 or so species occurring now and there are wildflowers and native grasses and fescues over much of the plot. Sure we have to tackle things like docks and we also unfortunately have 1 plot with Horsetail, but those kind of challenges go with the territory when it comes to establishing a meadow.
“The general public response to Melfort Park has been overwhelmingly positive, Magda Swider, the regeneration officer in charge of the project, sought public opinion early on, and factored it into the creation of the site. We listened to local voices when they said that they wanted some areas to be kept for general public use, so there are some flat areas of amenity grassland to provide somewhere easy for children to play, and for people to stage small scale events. But we also added the biodiversity, exercise and access elements that the public expressed a real desire to see here.” Andy Devine, Greenspace Community Engagement Officer has had a large part to play on site especially with regards to the community allotment spaces which of course focus on growing, however, this has also made a considerable contribution as a wide variety of plants, fruit and vegetables which are grown onsite which not only is excellent for the local community, but the pollinators love the gardens too.
“Occasionally things don’t go right, you have to accept that, and adapt to meet those issues. We sought to include a lot of native grass seed in the grassland mix we used here on reseeded areas, mirroring what had been recorded here before. Originally the site had a good coverage of common birds’ foot trefoil, which is a prolific nectar provider as well as being a caterpillar food plant, alas in the meadow mix provided we found greater bird’s-foot trefoil instead, which I would more associate with a wetland environment. This might seem like a small difference, but this species has a shorter flowering season than the more widely occurring common bird’s-foot trefoil and that matters in a biodiversity park. It has established quite well now and I am also pleased to see the common version making a return as well. It was a simple case of someone trying to improve an element but unfortunately in doing so perhaps losing sight of the better and key existing species. The lesson is to stick to the naturally occurring species if they are good. I often think that when you are trying to manage a site it pays to have a close look at what naturally occurs. However, on this site that was hard to achieve as we had to cap the contaminated parts of the site and bring in the topsoil therefore substantially changing the conditions for the existing species. It will be interesting to survey the site over the coming seasons and keep an eye out for any of the original dormant seed stock that makes a reappearance!”
Undoubtedly Melfort Park is a big improvement for the local community. For biodiversity, and pollinators in particular, a crucial follow up will be the ongoing overall management. There is something special about having such a rich biodiverse site in the heart of a town which had a considerable industrial footprint, and with the Greenspace team on the case it should stay that way.
STOP PRESS : Gillian was surveying Melfort in mid July with the local BSBI recorder Michael Philips, and Malcome MacNeill who is something of an expert in urban botany. They recorded 72 grass and wildflower species on the site. It was particularly nice to record several native species that have now made their way on to the site that were not planted as part of the meadow sowing – lesser trefoil and black medic among them. There was also discussion of ideas on how to tweak the mowing regime to increase the habitat types within the park so safe to say Gillian is looking forward to seeing the progress over the next couple of years.
Scottish pollinators 