Spring is here and that means flowers. Not just the wildflowers that fill our woods and parklands, but beautiful blossom on many of Frodsham’s trees and shrubs. There’s a surprising number of species that live here, brightening up the hedgerows and filling the air with their gorgeous scent. Here’s just a few you can see out and about in our town...

 

Spring is wildflower season in our woods. Any relatively undisturbed patch of woodland will host a wide variety of beautiful flowering plants from March until June. We are lucky in Frodsham that many of our green spaces are wooded and hold many varieties of wildflowers; a gorgeous spectacle for visitors to enjoy and a great reason to get out and enjoy Frodsham’s green spaces. A walk through Frodsham’s woodland wildflowers can be an unforgettable experience...
 

 

Need some help to stick to your new year’s resolutions? Want to try something new? Want to get outdoors more and not sure where to start? While it might be tempting to wait until Spring to start venturing outside, with the winter solstice behind us the days are getting longer and there is plenty to see and do!

This January, take on the challenge to get outside and spend time in nature every day...

 

Marshlands Tree Garden is at the end of Greenfield Lane which runs between the Bear’s Paw and Devonshire Bakery. It is on the site of Frodsham's own gasworks which began operating in 1856.

The gas was produced by heating coal in retorts. A process which gave rise to a lot of messy by-products and originally only the gas had a commercial value...

 

National Tree Week (28 November to 6 December 2020) is the UK’s largest tree celebration, marking the start of the winter tree planting season. This year Frodsham Root Network wants to hear about your tree planting plans!

National Tree Week was initiated by The Tree Council in March 1975 to support national replanting of trees after the outbreak of Dutch elm disease...

Call for Frodsham landowners to commemorate the coronavirus outbreak and celebrate the importance of nature with tree planting.

November marks the start of tree planting season, a time for the regeneration and rejuvenation of our environment. This year local landowners are being asked to plant trees to commemorate the outbreak of COVID-19 and those who have lost their lives, while celebrating the solace that so many people have found in nature...

It is not a record to be proud of but Cheshire is one of the least wooded counties in one of the least wooded countries in Europe (Cheshire 4%; UK 12%; Europe 40%). This wasn’t always the case. In Medieval times, the forests of Mara and Mondrem covered 60 square miles of our part of Cheshire. This was slowly cleared over the centuries and now only tiny relics of this ancient woodland remain. Hob Hey Wood is one of those relics.

We’re all aware that trees can play and important part in the fight against climate change...

Five years ago we provided a home to a young hedgehog that had spent time recuperating in a local rescue centre.

'Spikey’, as he was called by my eldest daughter, was set free in our garden in June 2015, and he seemed to enjoy his new surroundings. A few sniffs and he was off exploring, so after a few minutes watching him we left him alone and thought we’d see him over the next few days, weeks, months and years...

I was born in the North East of England and as a very young boy my late father Maurice Cowley would take me to the local ponds and marshes to see all the wading birds. I loved the experience but then football and children came along and I somehow lost the passion until I came to live in Helsby and Frodsham. 

I went to the marsh for the first time 12 years ago, a ten minute walk down Marsh Lane and the experience rekindled my love of bird watching again...

What do we mean by green space? We might automatically think of parks, fields, woodland. They are definitely green spaces. But so are grass verges, hedgerows, allotments and cemeteries. They can be public or private. If plants can grow there, then it is a green space. There might also be areas that aren't currently being used as green space, but could be in future. 

The next step is to look at what resources are already out there...