A huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped plant 100 native shrubs on The Hook Nature reserve. Lots of new people stepped forward to help and organised friends and family to join them. The shrubs are threaded throughout the central part of the reserve and along by the dyke and are part of the plan to create a wildflower walk. The shrubs will provide food for insects, flowers for pollinators and berries for birds, all with the aim of increasing the biodiversity of The Hook.
The shrubs planted are:
Four different sorts of wild rose – Sweet Briar, Scotch Burnet, Field and Dog Rose
Alder Buckthorn – food plant of the Brimstone butterfly, berries loved by thrushes.
Guelder Rose – white flowers, followed by red berries loved by birds.
Spindleberry – small green flowers loved by bees, unusual red and orange fruits.
Cherry plum – early flowering from Feb- May, small red/purple plums. Good for nesting bird