In 2018, with permission from Chichester District Council and Chichester Festival Theatre, Transition Chichester planted a length of hedge just south of the Festival Theatre in Oaklands Park, Chichester. This hedge is located immediately inside the post and rail fence which separates the large car park from the grassy area below the theatre buildings. The aim is to help wildlife, and also to provide a screen for theatre goers who might like to picnic on the grass there but who may well prefer a view of bushes and wildflowers rather than hundreds of parked cars!
Native hedging plants were supplied free by Woodland Trust as this is a community project – in fact some spare saplings were planted lower down Oaklands Park near Oaklands Way, and the remainder were donated to another community project in Midhurst. The Woodland Trust plants were supplemented with species not supplied in their package including alder buckthorn, to encourage brimstone butterflies, cherry plum, whose early flowers provide food for newly emerged queen bumble bee in very early spring, honeysuckle to give a better, denser structure, and a few random fruit bushes for humans and wildlife to share. Elm suckers from a nearby tree have added to the diversity, though these are sadly hit by Dutch Elm Disease from time to time.
The hedge was never watered, but was initially mulched with wood chippings from Brandyhole Copse, to help retain moisture and prevent competition from vigorous grasses. Snowdrops and native bluebells have been planted along the base. The hedge has established very well (despite a small amount of over-enthusiastic strimming by the council parks department or their contractors!) so we will develop a management plan which will keep the height within bounds, and which will also encourage and maintain a thick base, something that is so important for wildlife – eg for bumblebees to make their nests, small mammals and hedgehogs to live in. Eventually, one or two of the hedgerow saplings may be allowed to grow to mature trees to replace the silver birches behind them, which only have a limited lifespan.
Transition Chichester has planted other hedgerows within Oaklands Park which are thriving, and the newly formed Friends of Oaklands Park are hoping to add still more, improving biodiversity, and providing wildlife corridors between the various less intensively managed parts of the park. Large areas of short grass, even with a good number of standard trees, only support a limited amount of wildlife!
Mary Iden coordinated this project.
