Walk on the wild side

Val looks at how a wild approach benefits wildlife 

- Val Bourne

I WAS destined to live in Gloucestershire, because the Best Beloved was born in this county and intends to stay here! Just crossing the county boundary causes him to wince, and when we’re by the Four Shire Stone, near Moretonin-Marsh, he nearly has apoplexy because he doesn’t know quite where he is. The stone monument marks the spot where Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire met, until 1931, when Evenlode was moved from Worcestershire into Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has been encouraging local communities to adopt a wilder approach to their local spaces in order to help wildlife. Volunteers register their own site, and in January 2023 they maintained 9, 229.4 square metres of wild patches across the county. I hope their maintenance regime is light, because undisturbed places are  far better for wildlife, as I’ve discovered from my own garden. It’s the wilder areas that bring in the birds and bees here.