Plymouth's Buzzing!

What’s the need?

Plymouth is buzzing. It is full of life. There are hundreds of species living side by side in our vibrant city. As we go about our busy lives, so do they. Buzzing bees spend their summer months collecting nectar and pollen to feed their young, and in the process pollinate our wildflowers, garden plants and crops. Other insects such as beetles, butterflies, flies and moths also perform this important task of pollination.

Wild insects pollinate our food for free. Without our pollinators, we wouldn’t have crops such as apples, cherries, pears, plums, pumpkins and strawberries.

However, many of these pollinating insects are in decline due to the loss of their habitat. A massive 3 million hectares of flower-rich grassland have been lost in the UK since World War Two – these flower-rich areas were vital habitats for wild bees and other insects to nest and feed. As a result, this has caused large declines in UK pollinators as well as other invertebrates.

What did we achieve?

Over the two-year life of the project, we have made huge strides to get Plymouth Buzzing:

• 5.8 hectares of meadow created
• 53.5kg of wild flower seed sown
• 1900 flowering bulbs planted
• 5200 wild flower plug plants planted
• 82 local schools worked with / advised
• 1204 school children engaged

Our partners at Plymouth City Council helped us to create meadows at Brickfields Triangle, Stonehouse Park, Central Park, Barn Park Meadow and Whitleigh Meadow.

Going forward? 

We continued our work after the project was completed in XX with Plymouth City Council to get more of ‘Plymouth Buzzing!’. Through funding from the Big Greenspace Challenge, we developed new meadow areas in Radford Park and Mount Gould Park. The Big Green Space Challenge is supported by the Langage Landscape Fund from the development of the Langage Energy Centre at Plympton by Centrica. One of the purposes of the Fund is to support landscape and planting schemes involving the community.

We also worked with Plymouth City Council to advise them on their Bee Verges. These colourful stripes of land can be seen on the approaches to the city at Embankment Road, Billacombe Road, Novorossiysk Road and Tavistock Road.