J’AIME SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023

THE GROUP HAS GROWN OVER
THE PAST THREE YEARS
“All of this is the work of the Friends of Wylde
Green Train Station. They planned, planted and
tended the flowers and artwork that have
transformed the station’s green corridors,
and evidence of their continued solicitude for
this oasis and the biodiversity it nurtures is
everywhere. An ungainly teasel, its flowerhead
heavy with appreciative bumblebees, has
been meticulously propped up with a bamboo
cane. Wildflowers like garlic mustard and
green alkanet, beloved by pollinators but
so often dismissed in the garden under the
unjustified umbrella term of ‘weeds’ have been
lovingly labelled to help visitors give them the
acknowledgement they deserve. An information
board, produced in partnership with Butterfly
Conservation, explains the importance of
planting for pollinators and extols the virtues of
often-overlooked plants like garlic mustard and
nettles.
“It is July when I visit and, while many flowers
are at their peak, others have by now died back
or gone to seed; yet this confers a beauty all
its own. Spent bluebells are everywhere – in
May, the station must have been awash with
them – their papery cups peeling open to
reveal the seeds like nests of tiny eggs. The
minute, perfect orbs of cleavers seeds scramble
through the helter-skelter twists of willowherb
fluff, wiry wood avens burrs and the translucent,
shimmering moons of honesty. A sycamore seed
is caught on a withered cleavers stem like a lost
kite. Even in death, there is life everywhere.
Spiders’ webs traverse the spaces between the
dried stems; a snail with a shell like inlaid wood
rests on a skeletal cow parsley flower. A broken
poppy stalk is black with aphids, busily tended
by a pair of ants crawling unceremoniously over
their tiny bodies.
“Nothing here is wasted when it has the
potential to nurture life. Prunings have been
collected and woven into dead hedges to create
homes for minibeasts and small mammals like
hedgehogs. Logs have been carefully arranged
to form habitat piles. A fallen tree trunk forms
a backdrop for planting. Every opportunity has
been taken to add magic. Walking from the
platform towards the car park, a wall built from
old railway sleepers supports a bed of hart’s
tongue ferns, purple toadflax and nodding
campanula. At the base of one of the sleepers
there’s a tiny fairy door, painted with toadstools,
flowers and delicate lanterns. You have to look
carefully to spot it. But Wylde Green Station
merits a careful look.”
WYLDE GREEN TRAIN STATION
IS NOW A SPACE FOR THE
COMMUNITY TO BE PROUD OF
14 www.jaimemagazine.com