Our Local Soil and Local Seed Project

Seed Brush Harvesting Fernhill

As part of the ongoing DLR Biodiversity projects which are implementing the actions of the DLR County Biodiversity Action Plan 2009 - 2013 and our new Plan for 2021-2025, DLR's Biodiversity Officer commenced a pilot local seed harvesting project at Fernhill in 2021 with the help of our Parks staff.

Brush harvesting of the front meadows (which form part of the ecograzing project at Fernhill) was completed last August to collect a percentage of the seed from the meadows. It is important not to harvest all the seed and to let a good percentage of the seed fall to ground in order to maintain the meadow. The seed was then dried, cleaned and sorted and is stored for use on other local DLR projects to use local seed where appropriate and where conditions are also appropriate for the species. As this was a pilot project there was not a large volume of seed at a scale for use on many areas but the aim is to expand the project over the next few years.

DLR's Biodiversity Officer is also working with developers and their consultants to encourage the reuse of local soils on development sites and to also collect seed where this is feasible or if not to create wild areas from local soil using the DLR Slow to Mow management regime rather than seeding soil with packet wildflower seed or commercial seed.

Please also see the All Ireland Pollinator Plan comments regarding why they do not recommend wildflower seed here.

Seed Brush Harvesting Shanganagh

In 2022 we will also be harvesting seed from the meadows in Shanganagh with the help of our Parks staff and the seed will be used for the edges of the new pitches planned for this year along with other projects.

Seed Saving with Communities

DLR's Biodiversity Officer will be organising seed saving workshops for local communities and residents of DLR. 

Orchid Translocation Cherrywood 

DLR's Biodiversity Officer and DLR Cherrywood team have worked with a developer and their ecologist to translocate an orchid grassland area from the development area into a new park. This project was carried out over 2019 and 2020.

The translocated grassland produced orchids in 2021 and will be monitored over coming years and managed by an appropriate timing of cutting. The translcoated area was assessed in 2021 and pyramidal orchids are flowering well with over 200 stems present. The  bee orchids were approximately 20 or more which is also a very good recovery. 

There were 6 common spotted orchids which were not very numerous in the original grassland so they had also translocated well.  There was also a good range of other herbs species. The first cut was completed carefully in October 2021 and we will continue to monitor the area.