At the edge of the woods in Affoltern, a pocket park with the character of a forest margin is taking shape these days. Here too, the improvements follow the needs of the wild bee species occurring locally. The heavily overgrown area in front of the woodland edge is largely cleared, the paving slabs sealing the ground are removed, and the site is given numerous structures — bare earth and sand, steep loess walls, deadwood, piles of stones and branches — to open up nesting opportunities for as many species as possible.
The heavily overgrown plot on Riedenholzstrasse…
…is currently being cleared of scrub…
…which steadily opens up bare ground.
Removing the paving slabs to unseal the soil…
…creates space for ground-nesting wild bees.
To be continued…
Partners
The upkeep of the Zurich pocket parks is made possible by Daniel Labhart from Schafisheim in the canton of Aargau. This innovative horticultural entrepreneur has a genuine commitment to biodiversity and supports the work of IG Wilde Biene through the sale of his planting bricks optimised for wild bees.
Petrig AG in Volketswil supports us with custom-made, weatherproof mounts for the information panels of at least the first 20 pocket parks.
And Grün Stadt Zürich lets us use the city's small parks rent-free and bears the cost of the improvement measures.
