A few new additions to the brown roofs on our Town House building in September, adding small log piles to each of our accessible brown roofs. Each one will provide a point of cover for invertebrates as well as create small pockets of shelter on the roof for plant seeds to flourish.
After the drought a lot of the plants had all died back, but checking the plants showed that many had produced seed which is great for the seed bank on the roof and some plants were pushing out green growth for a second flush.
As only a few of the more invasive plants are every cleared (buddleia, tree saplings etc) which can damage the particular structure on our brown roof side, the remaining die back from the establishing plants will add to the organic mater on the roof and over time, we should get more green then brown.
The roofs are colonising naturally, and we have found all sorts up there including a gorse plant! We won’t be deliberately seeding the roofs (however tempting it is) to try to maximise the potential for plants which are less thuggish taking over from any given seed mix. Though we might end up being inadvertent plant seed dispersers with any caught in our clothing!
The log piles also provide a release point for any moths caught
in the moth trapping nights. So far this year the species that have been found (and identified)
on the brown roofs are:
- Small Quaker
- Ruddy Streak
- Gymnoscelis
sp
- Common
Quaker
- Jersey Tiger
- Tree-Lichen
Beauty
- Rosy Minor
- Shuttle
shapped dart
- Yponomeuta sp.
- Vine rustic
- Agriphila sp
- Poplar Grey
- Oak processonary moth
Many thanks to the experts on I-Naturalist and Twitter for their
help with ID as well as my two new favourite books 😉
In October we also working on some planting refreshes at our Penrhyn Road campus, adding some planting to the long bed by the food store.
Planted included roses, mock orange, choisya, verbena, primrose, hellebore, bluebells and winter jasmine and dogwoods. All the plants chosen were of benefit to wildlife by adding pollen sources, food sources such as berries or nesting sites (or combinations of the three). They also have the added benefit of adding splashes of winter colour to the area (dogwoods) and scent (roses, jasmine, mock orange and choisya) to the area.
Hopefully by increasing the variety of pollinator provision and sheltering spots, we will see an increase in the variety of species being recorded on the site.
Volunteer for one of our pollinator surveys next year to help us count our pollinators on site. Email biodiversity@kingston.ac.uk for more information.
Til next time.
Sivi
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