Wild for spring and summer

With the arrival of the warmer Spring weather, Linton’s wildlife gardeners busied themselves by preparing and planting the site’s sustainable wildflower meadow.

A team of willing volunteers brought in garden tools from home to complete the work and their efforts have been rewarded by a flush of new Spring growth, which will hopefully develop into a colourful display of native wildflowers in the Summer.

Although physical work on the project naturally slowed during the Winter months, there was still plenty of activity going on in the background. At the end of last year, two members of the Linton team were successful in securing a place on the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) training course, on Honeybee management. Running over several months, the course encompassed both classroom teaching and practical handling sessions. The team are proud to confirm that Steve Roach and Andy Spragg are now fully certified members of the BBKA. In addition, their affiliation to the Cambridgeshire Beekeepers association has afforded them access to a wealth of expert knowledge and a brand-new opportunity for our business to network with the local community.

On the networking front, some interesting links have already been forged and the team are now exploring an opportunity to collaborate with the Cambridge University Agroecology group, in a study focusing on the impact of heavy metals in soil & the subsequent bioaccumulation in Bees. Citizen science projects like this are an increasingly important source of scientific data. And if the site proves eligible to participate in the study, then this opportunity may open a new and exciting way for our business to support the local community and society.

Zaggy Zachariou, Linton Site Director, said: “The Linton teams’ enthusiasm to make a positive environmental contribution and boost our green credentials is stronger than ever. I was thrilled to see so many of our team members taking an active part and giving up their spare time to be part of this rewilding project. Since posting our initial article on Linton’s’ journey into beekeeping, it’s great to see that Bromborough have also caught the beekeeping bug. Perhaps a honey ‘taste-off’ will be on the cards in the not-too-distant future”.