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David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature… count us in!

21st April 2024

We are very pleased to be taking part in the David Bellamy Blooming Marvellous Pledge for Nature for the second year running. It’s an exciting initiative we joined in 2023, to show how dedicated we are to helping Britain’s wildlife.

 

We, at Polmanter are very lucky to be surrounded by the beautiful countryside and we have a responsibility to protect and look after the wildlife that is on our doorstep.

Progress so far

All parks that make the pledge commit themselves to:

    • improving their existing habitats for wildlife

    • creating new wildlife habitats and features where possible

    • managing their green space in as environmentally friendly a way as possible

    • involving their guests and staff in wildlife conservation

    • engaging with local conservation bodies and projects

With this in mind, we kicked off our plans to create ‘Pollinator Patches’ across the site last year, including a previously un-used space just beyond the outdoor children’s play area and putting green. The aim of these were to create wildflower gardens, dedicated to bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects to inhabit the area and use it as a source of food. Groundwork started in April and we seeded in May. We chose a native 100% wildflower mix, which included poppys, blue lupin and soapwart. To compliment this space, we also fitted bug shelter boxes to encourage more species to make themselves at home.

The results speak for themselves – take a look…

From this...
... to this!

 

So that our guests can identify our wildlife areas, set aside for our David Bellamy efforts, we’ve added signage which includes a QR code to find out more information. Helping everyone to understand the wildlife around them while staying at Polmanter, is part of the pledge, which will then hopefully inspire them to do their bit when they return home.

Plans for 2024

With our pollinator patches well established, we’ve identified new areas to create more of these beautiful and functional spaces. Planting plans have been made and we can’t wait to see these come to life again.

One of the new David Bellamy wildlife challenges for 2024 we’ve taken on is ‘Home Sweet Home’ – putting up artificial homes to help animals on our park survive and thrive. We’ve installed RSPB- accredited bird boxes and bug houses across the site to encourage more species to make themselves at home. These pollinating birds and insects are vital for the health of our countryside, so it’s important we make them feel just as welcome as our camping guests!

Our Cornish hedgerows are being left to flourish, filled with foxgloves, cornflowers and pink campion.
We’ve been allowing more wild areas including areas of longer grass on banks, and unused corners and edges that were previously mown – including a new mown labyrinth in our play area, introduced wildlife-friendly shrubs and trees, enhancing biodiversity and natural beauty on our site.

We work with the fantastic Trevenna Cross nurseries to help us source locally grown and wildlife friendly plants.
We’ve also switched out diesel garden machinery (and our main site staff vehicle) for electric – to reduce pollution and noise disturbance.

 

We’re sure there’s another challenge we fancy tackling before the end of year, but for now, this is keeping us busy!