How to help wildlife thrive in our urban grasslands, verges and gardens

Meadows

Buglife: Managing urban areas for pollinators

Buglife: Management of wildflower-rich grasslands for insects

Plantlife: Meadow hub

Plantlife: No Mow May

Monmouthshire County Council ‘Nature isn’t Neat’ initiative (part of the Gwent Green Grid)

Biodiversity Wales: Planting for Pollinators

Wild Oxfordshire: Community Resources page. Includes signs to download (“Please don’t mow…”)

Long Mead’s Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project (TVWMRP)

Eynsham Nature Recovery Network (a network of people for nature)

Verges

Buglife: Managing road verges for pollinators

Plantlife Road Verge Hub

Plantlife Good verge guide

Plantlife: Managing grassland road verges

Wildlife Trusts: Managing Road Verges for Wildlife. Contains several case studies.

Wild Oxfordshire: Community Resources page. Includes information on Oxfordshire’s Road Verge Nature Reserves.

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust: Lincolnshire’s Road Verges

Plantlife Road Verge Hub

Plantlife Good verge guide

Wildlife Trusts: Managing Road Verges for Wildlife. Contains several case studies.

Planting or sowing new meadows

Plantlife: Keeping the ‘Wild’ in wildflower

Flora Locale: Buying native flora. Advisory note (importance of using seeds of local plants)

Flora Locale: Obtaining native seed. Advisory note.

Flora Locale: Spreading hay. Advisory note on using green hay to seed new meadows.

Flora Locale: Flowers on the Verge: Planting on Countryside Road Verges

Flora Locale: Code of Practice for collectors, growers and suppliers of native flora. Planting with wildlife in mind.

Hedges

Hedgelink: Hedges in urban areas

Hedgelink: The Complete Hedge Good Management Guide

Buglife: Ancient and species-rich hedgerows

Wolton, R.J., Morris, R.K.A., Pollard, K.A. & Dover J.W., 2013. Understanding the combined biodiversity benefits of the component features of hedges. Report of Defra project BD5214.

Managing urban areas for Butterflies

Butterfly Conservation: Building Sites for Butterflies programme

Butterfly Conservation: Big City Butterflies project

Butterfly Conservation: Butterflies in towns and cities. This leaflet describes the main habitat requirements of thirty butterfly species associated with urban habitats and gives advice on managing habitats in towns and cities.

Butterfly Conservation: How changing the way amenity grass is managed encourages wildflowers, butterflies & moths, and can save money: the Dorset experience.

Wild London: Brilliant Butterflies partnership