“My irregular lawn, well shaved by Gatsby’s gardener” observed Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald wrote his masterpiece in the 1920s, and for many years after the well-shaved lawn became part and parcel of popular gardens. Now, as they will tell you in Glasgow, that neat and tidy philosophy is wilting fast.
The Jazz Age, Long Island, life of Gatsby is long gone, today more and more of us are looking to go easy on the mowing, let the flowers flourish, tolerate a bit of untidiness. Often with the specific aim of helping pollinators. Glasgow is one Scottish city that has totally embraced a pollinator friendly approach to greenspace management – they even have their own Pollinator Plan and grasp that pollinators are a key part of Scotland’s biodiversity.
Take a walk around this vibrant city and you will see charming pictorial meadow strips (1m wide) which have sprung up across Scotland’s largest urban community. Created at the front of uncut grass, harbouring a variety of species and aesthetically pleasing heights, they are seeded with cornfield annuals and have been a big hit, the emphasis is on ‘big’ as they total 7,500 square metres over 23 sites.
And that is just one string to Glasgow’s ever-productive bow in creating green havens. At Hogganfield Park and Queen’s Park you will find greenspaces that are labelled as Pollinator Parks. It’s a bold sign that Glasgow takes its biodiversity duties seriously and is comfortable mixing park uses and introducing new nature friendly approaches.
There is a clear purpose to the council’s actions and they are adept at calling on the help of expert partners. Anthony McCluskey is a fine example of this method. Well known for his work with bumblebees and butterflies he works with Glasgow City Council to deliver ‘Helping Hands for Butterflies’ at the city’s Ruchill, Elder and Springburn Parks.
Perhaps pride of place in Glasgow’s suite of insect friendly project should go to the Green Connectors project, Phase 1 of which was funded by the NatureScot Biodiversity Challenge Fund. As a result Glasgow City Council has been able to commit £1.5 million from its budget over five years to implement this drive across the rest of the city. Even to the most sceptical onlooker this innovative green infrastructure approach surely shows the level of Council support for pollinators.
In a mosaic of projects some catch the eye for their uncanny success in drawing people and nature together. Various Friends of Parks groups offer the council vital support in carrying out wildflower planting and Glasgow has embraced the initiative that Buglife got underway in the shape of imaginative and much needed B-Lines running through the city.
RSPB Scotland have been consistently good partners for Glasgow, and they cut and lifted the highly popular existing wildflower meadow behind Kelvingrove Art Gallery in a bid to reduce nutrients and enhance biodiversity. Additional TCV meadow management – a total of 6 days’ work (168 hours) was carried out at four sites – Elder Park, Glasgow Necropolis, Ruchill Park and Springburn Park
Glasgow is enthusiastically embracing the new relaxed mowing, better-managed greenspace philosophy. It can point to 13 large meadow sites across the city managed by a contract farmer and 15 smaller sites managed by The Conservation Trust with help from the Council. This habitat creation is exactly what we crave more of in the environmental sector.
All of these planting efforts and pollinator savvy approaches mark Glasgow out as a city that recognises nature has a problem and needs our help. Even Gatsby’s gardener would surely have approved of a shift that is gradually delivering an urban pollinator paradise.
Scottish pollinators 