I have a Cunning Plan...

When I was working at the Millennium Seed Bank I was fortunate to be involved in a collaboration with Atlantic College. This international school is based at St Donat's Castle on the coast of the Vale of Glamorgan, and I visited a couple of times to talk to the students and carry out some seed collecting.

And I don't mind admitting I fell in love with the place. After all, what's not to like? A dramatic, well-preserved medieval castle; bright, motivated students; fantastic Tudor gardens; a dramatic stretch of coast full of fossils; woodland and grassland that form part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast; warm and friendly staff; a modern arts centre; there are even two swimming pools!

St Donat's from space (courtesy of Google, obviously)

So impressed was I by the place that I felt I wanted to make a contribution to its future. Wonderful though it is, it could be so much more; the wild habitats have been unmanaged for years and the formal gardens - though still lovely - have suffered a degree of neglect. After much thought I came up with what has become known as - in the words of Baldric - the Cunning Plan.

My idea is to tie together all the things that make St Donat's so special in a project that is part renovation, part habitat management. There are two central themes:

The Tudor gardens

Having done a little research, it turns out that the gardens are even more interesting than I realised. They are given Grade I status in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales and Elisabeth Whittle, Inspector of Historic Parks and Gardens for Welsh Historic Monuments, had this to say about them: 'The wonderful situation and scale of these terraced Tudor gardens, their completeness and the lack of major alteration, give them special significance and value not only for Wales but also for Britain as a whole.'

Clearly the sympathetic renovation of these gardens has got to be a priority, and I'm currently researching lists of plants appropriate to an Elizabethan garden.

The Alton boys in the Beast Garden

Biodiversity

Although the nearby Site of Special Scientific Interest stops just short of the castle grounds, the habitats on the estate are still of importance. The woodland is mostly on slopes too steep to have been cultivated, and the clifftop grasslands are species-rich in places. Appropriate management of both these habitats would improve their wildlife value. Atlantic College has its own apiary and the students help to look after the bees; part of the Cunning Plan involves using pollinator-friendly planting to encourage not only the honey bees but also solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies and a whole range of insect species.

So my aim is to have a series of zones radiating out from the Beast Garden - formal, then semi-formal with drifts of pollinator-friendly flowers, finally blending into the native habitats of woodland and grassland.

How the castle entrance might look

I have the go-ahead to produce a plan; all we need now is some funding...

Bee-friendly Plant of the Month - the Willow

Following on from last month’s plant, the crocus, March brings another good source of pollen for our bees, though a less showy one - the willow. And like the crocus, the willow has a long history of medicinal use. Though it is hard to imagine now, malaria was once a widespread disease in the British Isles, particularly in the damp, low-lying fens of East Anglia. In the guise of the ague or marsh fever, it claimed thousands of lives from the fifteenth century up until its eventual eradication in this country in the nineteenth century. A popular folk remedy for the ague was a bitter infusion of the bark of the willow, a common tree in the damp areas where malaria was prevalent. This was known to reduce the symptoms of malaria, particularly the associated fever. In the nineteenth century the active ingredient of this infusion, salicylic acid, was identified and from this acetyl salicylic acid - or aspirin - was eventually synthesised.

There are 18 species of Salix native to the British Isles, and they range in form from dwarf shrubs of the arctic-alpine highlands to woodland trees. Many of the commoner species are medium sized shrubs to small trees, and are particularly associated with wet ground and river banks. Their fluffy seeds are wind-dispersed and short-lived, relying on a successful touch-down on damp mud for germination. Their other method of propagation is to shed twigs and branches, which have a remarkable ability to take root. For that reason, never use willow for fence posts, or you will find your fence sprouting leaves.

Willows are also alarmingly promiscuous, cross-breeding readily to form a bewildering range of hybrids, a nightmare for the botanist. Amongst these hybrids and varieties are many commercially important forms, such as the osiers used for basket weaving and that English essential, the cricket bat willow. But in terms of early spring pollen production, it is Salix caprea, the goat or pussy willow, which is the real star. Goat willow can tolerate drier ground than many of its relatives, and as such is found in a wider range of habitats, including damp woodlands and hedgerows. It is the classic willow of Palm Sunday, producing its distinctive silvery catkins in time for Easter, though it bears almost no resemblance to the palms of the Holy Land.

But it is the male catkins, of course, that are of interest to the beekeeper. These start off with a sheen of silvery hairs, but soon the stamens open and each catkin becomes dusted with bright yellow pollen. Their resemblance to newly-hatched chicks has led to a number of local vernacular names, such as goose-and-goslings or the wonderful Shropshire variation, goose-and-gubblies.