A PARLIAMENT OF FOWLS

When chicory first came into favour for game and wildlife covers a few years ago, I confess that I was less than enthusiastic. My first attempt at growing it did not help, because the small patch was on a favoured fallow deer travel route, and they grazed it so hard that it never made much. Today, I am much keener, and see lots of benefits.

Grown as a link cover, and alongside beetle banks, it gives great winter escape cover for my grey partridges, and I am sure that it helps us to hold our stock by giving them confidence that there is somewhere to hide when a buzzard or kite comes floating over. Unlike most perennials, it also produces a considerable amount of seed, which is appreciated by small-beaked songbirds like linnets, and especially goldfinches. The blue dandelion-like flower heads are great too, providing a resource for hoverflies, bees and other native pollinators well into autumn.