Front gardens in South Woodham Ferrers tend to car parking spaces

Bees, butterflies and insects generally have been in a severe decline in recent years. We have been eroding their habitats without even thinking about it.

There is a new move to try to reverse this dramatic loss, grass verges are not being trimmed until wild flowers have bloomed and some sown with wild flower meadow seed. The results are not only colourful and beautiful but provide essential nectar for insects.

It is sad to see as one walks around town that the majority of front gardens have been paved or tarmaced to extend car parking space. People simply have more cars and with a lack of parking on the street have adapted gardens. Walk down a major through fare such as King Edwards Road and be dismayed by the concrete desert that has been created. The number of gardens that still have flower beds is in the low tens.

This loss of habitat has been detrimental to insects and in turn to birds which rely on larvae to feed their young.