On 3 December we were blessed with beautiful weather. Catriona Bass from the Longmead Wildlife Trust brought 20 volunteers who worked alongside students from the GCR and JCR, as well as volunteering members of staff. We planted approximately 30 different variety of wildflowers some of which were Marginal plants that love being in wet marshy soil, for instance Yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) and Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris). All the wildflowers were supplied by Longmead, which is a great way for Christ Church to be able to support Catriona and the fantastic work she is doing restoring Flood plain meadows around Oxfordshire. Please follow this link to find out more about the charity and the fantastic work Catriona and her team are doing.

It was a great way to engage and educate the students and build awareness around the significance of floodplain meadow habitat in the UK. How important they are in capturing carbon emissions and why we need to protect and preserve them. It was also a good time to reflect how fortunate we are at Christ Church to have our very own floodplain to nurture and protect.

In the spring I am looking forward to seeing how successful our planting was and to share the flowering Meadow with the community and members of the public. I will be taking meadow tours throughout the summer so please get in touch, or check here, for further details.

We continue to work with Catriona and her volunteers to develop our meadows and look to other areas at Christ Church to increase our bio diversity helping to tackle climate change.