The second year of the project on the development of regional seed mixtures has started, as well as the work in the field. We began with the marking of the donor (i.e. plots where seed biomass will be collected) and receptor plots (e.i. plots where the seed biomass will be sown) in Raná in České Středohoří. The weather was not very good but the flowers of the pheasant's eye (Adonis vernalis) cheered us up. In May, we will find out what grows in the locality. In June, July and August, we will brush the seeds (e.i. collect) and in autumn, we will sow the adjacent field, which we will then monitor for a long time.
After intense final weeks, ERASMUS+ TRAIN#ER project has completed its results. We greatly thank all participants of the survey and the focus group at the beginning of the project. We now invite you to take a look at the project outcomes:
We have made a comment stating our opinion about the recently published Principles and Standards by Young et al. (2022) which provides an international framework for ecological restoration of mine sites. Although useful, we identified some limitations for practice, especially in Europe. For more details, please read:
Autumn is a perfect time for seed sowing, or regional seed biomass in our case, which was obtained by brushing suitable preserved dry grassland stands. We have established an experimental site where green hay was transferred earlier in the vegetation season. Now, part of the site was also sown with regional seed biomass. We are interested in the differences in the establishment and species composition in relation to the brushing time. Fieldwork is not over yet !!
At the end of September, Knowledge Exchange Workshop took place in České Budějovice. During the very busy two days, we managed to discuss the state of knowledge in the field of ecological restoration in individual countries, summarize the results of surveys and propose recommendations on how to better disseminate the knowledge of ecological restoration among schools and practitioners. In addition, we showed the participants examples of ecological restoration in the urban environment and enjoyed quite fun.
At the end of September, we impatiently waited for sunny weather. It was necessary to sample the faculty garden, and especially to find out what a new plot seeded with "Šumava regional seed mixture" looks like. In the place where the bare land remained due to construction work, we established an experimental flowering meadow this spring using two methods: the sowing of a regional seed mixture, and the application of remnants after hay. The latter is a traditional method that was commonly used in the past. Everything that remained after hay storage in the barn was swept out. This material was very rich in seeds of a variety of species. It seems now, that the sowing of seeds wins as daisies, cornflowers, and carrots have already bloomed in the plot. But the next season will fully show the power of both methods.
Recently, we have intensively dealt with the topic of regional seed mixtures thanks to the project called 'Regional seed mixtures as an effective tool for protecting the diversity of grassland habitats' funded by Norway grants. We are testing various machines for brushing donor stands. And we are not the only ones who deal with this topic. For example, in Prague, they are testing their hand-made brushing machine. We agreed on cooperation and we will compare all the brushing machines at several localities in the Prague region next year.
This year the flower strips in the Stromovka city park in České Budějovice are in great shape. All of them are beautiful and each one is different. You would say: "It's just a carrot ...", but judge yourself from the photos how aesthetic such plants are inside a mown park lawn.
