Sandy Water Park
Residents' Association, Llanelli
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This Association is now dissolved
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Gardening for Bees and Butterflies (2013 - 2019)
The Clear-up
The Residents' Association is constantly seeking to improve the unsightly and overgrown areas around Sandy Water Park, especially alongside the public footpaths.
We were concerned about the walkway and circular planted area leading from Heron Avenue to Sandy Lake.
The walkway had narrowed due to the encroaching grass and weeds; the circular planted area was a mess of overgrown bramble, shrub and weed and looked unsightly.
Autumn 2013: Our Secretary sought permission from the Millennium Coastal Park Rangers and we spent a very busy, but fun Saturday morning in October, removing all the overgrown bramble from the planted area and clearing the pathways - the improvement was hard work, extremely satisfying and very noticeable.
We are grateful to the Millennium Coastal Park for offering to remove all of our cuttings, which was a sizeable pile by the time we had finished!
The Planting - with 'Keep Wales Tidy: Wild Weekend for Wales'
January 2014: Keep Wales Tidy advertised a grant, to which community groups should apply in order to purchase and plant flowers suitable to bees and butterflies - it was called Keep Wales Tidy, The Wild Weekend; there is currently a national campaign to support the declining numbers of bee and butterfly.
The Residents' Association agreed that these pollinating plants would be perfect for the circular area we had cleared in October, perfect for the bees and butterflies and provide a spray of colour to be enjoyed by all, resident and visitor alike.
We applied for the grant and were successful!!
Keep Wales Tidy awarded us £150 in National Garden Centre vouchers; the rules were quite strict - the vouchers must be entirely spent and the planting must be completed by March 31st 2014.
A Saturday morning at the beginning of March saw us preparing the circular area for planting; our Chairman collected a car-full of plants and by Saturday 29th March, we had great pleasure in planting more than 60 pollinating plants, such as:
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Yarrow
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Black Knapweed
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Achillea - Cerise Queen
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Hesperis Violet
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Stachys Lanata
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Eryngium Planum
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Centaurea Dealbata
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Knautia Melton Pastels
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Centaurea Montana
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Hesperis Violet
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The wait is over - we have the first bloom, the first bee and the first butterfly.
Wow! What a difference a morning's work by a number of volunteers can make!
BEFORE
These images show how unsightly this area had become.
AFTER
Wow! What a difference four hours and a few volunteers can make.
It looks much neater and the paths are clear of weeds.
The circular planter at the bottom of Heron Avenue after we'd planted pollinating plants.
A view up to the housing after the volunteers had finished planting for pollinators.
Keep Wales Tidy awarded us a grant to plant for bees and butterflies - the sign explains to visitors and residents.
Rod watching them grow
Waiting for the bees and butterflies - once they've bloomed, of course.
Job done! Cleared of bramble in October and planted with pollinators for bees and butterflies in March.
Tiffany and Stewart working hard
Gerry and John
Lynn working hard
Martin, Rod, Les and Mark worked extremely hard to clear the circular area of overgrown bramble and shrub.
This massive pile is what we cleared from the area which was overgrown.
Notice how overgrown and unsightly this area had become.
The first bee-friendly bloom, April 29th 2014
July 2014
Fantastic to see the bees so obviously benefitting and enjoying the pollen from these plants.
Evidence, at last, of what we are trying to achieve.
April 2015
Just planted and watching them grow.
May 2015
You can see how much the plants have filled out in just 4 weeks by the last two pictures.
April 2015:
Another success to benefit Sandy Water Park's bee and butterfly population
We are excited to inform everyone that once again our Association has applied for, and been successful at, winning a grant from Keep Wales Tidy to purchase flowering plants which will benefit bees and butterflies as well as being visually attractive to visitors and residents.
This year the grant is named, Natural Buzz, its aim being to offer support to community groups, to plant pollinators only, from a RHS list.
Volunteer residents chose a dry Saturday in April 2015 to plant a large circular planter near Heron Avenue with the pollinators, which we began planting for the benefit of bees and butterflies last year. Hopefully, we will see a much larger display of beautiful flowering plants to bring joy to visitors as well as the bees and butterflies, in the coming months!
With thanks to Keep Wales Tidy for their support.
We applied for the grant with the aim of purchasing and improving our Bee and Butterfly garden
Keep Wales Tidy gave us this sign to erect near our garden.
Some plants from last year still to grow. The plot has been prepared ready for further planting.
Lots of plants...all we now need is for them to mature and attract pollinators.
What a difference four weeks makes.
Some plants are flowering already.
June 2015
Wow! What a difference and the bees are loving it!
From lots of empty space with small green leaves to a well filled out garden, full of colour, teaming with life and plenty of buzzzz!!!
Really growing quickly and already attracting bees.
Bees love this plant
Fabulous close-up
Lovely shot with Sandy lake in view
Such a delicate flower and a lovely bee
April 2016
Happy gardeners!
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Time to weed the Bee and Butterfly garden and getting excited for another buzzing summer!
April 2018
Volunteer residents and Committee members once again attended a rather overgrown Bee & Butterfly garden: weeding, turning over soil, purchasing pollinators and planting.
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14th April, 2018 - Weeding
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Malcolm, Karen, Alison, Tina, John, Peter, Avril and Chris spent a hard but worthwhile, four hours, over two separate days, weeding, de-grassing and making space for additional plants, while leaving last year's pollinators in place.
We gathered about eight bags and a ton-bag full of weeds and tufts of grass.
Our new neighbour, Mal, joined in the clear-up and has since been very generous with his metered water and regularly waters the circle.
Now it is ready for planting!
Many thanks to Malcolm Boorer for the following 3 videos of us making improvements to habitat and adding pollinator plants for the benefit of bees and butterflies at Sandy Water Park.
May 31st 2018
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Malcolm, Karen and Alison planted 4 Nepeta plants, which the bees seem to love; 1 Macrophyllia Pink & Red Hydrangea which the garden centre said was good for butterflies and 1 Ceanthus, another good pollinator.
Looking forward to a busy summer for our bees & butterflies; we'll upload more photos as the flowers bloom.
21st November, 2018
'Making a Buzzing Community'
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Malcolm Boorer, Karen Davies, Alison Smith and Tina Davies joined the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Carmarthenshire Council, The Wildlife Trust and others to build some habitat for bees.
A very productive and enjoyable morning.
2019 - June
Another year of planting pollinator plants done; the Bee & Butterfly garden is looking very busy.
Unfortunately, a lack of willing volunteers results in not as much maintenance as we would like, however, the wildlife is happy.
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Many thanks to Alison Smith, Karen Davies, Malcolm Boorer, Avril Powell, Tina Davies and Pete Tanner.
Image by Tony Rees
Image by Tony Rees
