The grass verge between the roads at the Bowd is bursting into flower thanks to co-operation between the Sid Valley Biodiversity Group and Sidmouth Town Council which is great news for local insects.

Insect populations are plummeting. Some people think that is good because they see insects as pests, but we need healthy insect populations.

Most people know about insects pollinating flowers to develop seeds, much of our food supply relies on insect pollination, but insects are a key part of nature’s web. A simple example is that we would not have swallows, wwifts and house martins in our summer skies without a supply of insects to feed them.

As has been said so often, one thing you can do to help is set aside a small area of your garden for wildlife. Taking this on board, Sidmouth Town Council has set aside a small area for wild flowers.

STC manage the verges at the Bowd for Devon Highways. They used to be cut regularly with a rotary mower and this meant very few wild flowers were growing there.

In August 2020, former councillor Denise Bickley was instrumental in promoting the Life on the Verge scheme where the management of roadside verges was changed to allow wild flowers to flourish. The Bowd verges were selected because there was plenty of room for nature while the very important road safety sight lines could be maintained, it has been an outstanding success.

Meadow wild flowers such as Cuckoo Flower, Knapweed and various Crane’s-bills have adapted to living in meadows, grassland that is cut once or twice a year and the hay removed. The new cutting regime at the Bowd mimics this pattern.

There is an early year cut before the flowers have begun to grow, this takes away the winter growth of grass. The area is then left for the flowers to grow and set seed before being cut again in the autumn. This cut helps the plants shed their seeds ready for next year’s growth.

It is very important that the cut vegetation is removed otherwise it rots down and the nutrients help promote rank grasses that will out compete and suppress the wild flowers. Denise organised volunteers from the Biodiversity Group to rake up the cuttings to help the council contractor remove them for composting, another benefit of the scheme.

Three summers later the scheme is developing fantastically. A quick survey of the site last week found 46 herbaceous species in flower or about to come into flower.

It was a delight to see a cloud of the pale pink Cuckoo Flowers floating above the grass on their delicate stalks. A quick look reveals buttercups, a closer look and you find there are three different types, meadow, creeping and bulbous buttercups, the yellow flowers open to many hungry insects seeking pollen and nectar.

There are plenty of the pink, five petalled Herb Robert and Shining Crane’s-bill. Another area has a dense patch of the feathery leaves of Meadow Crane’s-bill, the pale Wedgwood blue flowers will open in a few weeks.

One plant family that flourishes in meadow grassland is the pea family, the fabaceae, clovers, vetches and trefoils. The key to meadow grassland is the removal of the hay, which gradually reduces the nutrients in the soil.

Plants in the ea family can fix nitrogen from the air to make their own fertiliser. There are the bright pink purple flowers of common vetch and the more subtle purple bush vetch.

The yellow and orange flowers of bird’s-foot trefoil give it the alternative name of eggs and bacon. Its larger cousin, greater bird’s-foot trefoil, hasn’t come into flower yet but they do not have the orange.

Flower meadows took centuries to develop their floral wealth. Over the next few years the area will develop as the grass becomes less vigorous and makes room for even more insect feeding flowers.