Strathmiglo Conservation Community

01/04/2026

April has us all aflutter with more beautiful butterflies and moths to look for in our gardens and green spaces 🌷🦋

What have you seen recently?

31/03/2026

Can you identify this caterpillar we found in the Butterfly Garden today?

31/03/2026

After checking the weather forecast this time we are going to try and get this work done this evening (Tuesday 31st March). We will be there around 5:30/6:00 once we get clear of the day jobs!

29/03/2026

The weather this morning is miserable so no point doing work in the meadow in that.

We have plants to plant so will try and arrange for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening this week depending on weather so watch this space!

27/03/2026

Dear All,

Well, how the year has flown by, we are now officially in Spring and the clocks go forward this weekend so that all means it's time to do a bit more work in our Butterfly Meadow.

Sunday 29th March 10A @ Strathmiglo Butterfly Meadow (we will be there for no more than 2 hours)

Activities:
- Path preparation
- Planting seeds and plants
- General tidy up and maintenance

Apologies for the short notice but it would be good to see many of you come along and the weather looks promising. Please bring gloves, trowles, spades, bin bags and anything else to help with a bit of a tidy up.

14/03/2026

Please attend, or drop into, the Back Burn River Restoration community consultation to hear more and have your questions answered. See proposed designs for improving this area in Balbirnie Park.

🌿 Monday 16th March, 7pm
🌿 252 Memorial Hall, Markinch

Go Glenrothes Dogs Go Too Fife Our Glenrothes Balbirnie’s Future Foundation: Markinch Youth Project & Nature Pioneers Markinch Billboard Markinch Heritage Group 252 Memorial Hall, Markinch

17/02/2026

Teasels

Now is the time to plant your teasel seeds. These can be easily planted in trays or pots of compost and placed on a sunny windowsill to get them started. February is the ideal time for planting teasel seeds but only indoors for now, it is too early to plant outdoors just now. All garden centres sell packets of teasel seeds for £3 to £4 a packet.

Teasels are biennial plants so they don’t flower until the second year. Seeds planted now will come in to full flower next year so try and plant seeds each year to ensure every year you have some flowering.

The teasel is probably best-known for its brown, prickly stems and conical seed heads, which persist long after the plants themselves have died back for the winter. Between July and August, when teasels are in flower, the spiky flower heads are mostly green with rings of purple flowers. Found in damp grassland and field edges, or on disturbed ground, such as roadside verges and waste grounds, they are visited by bees when in flower, and birds when seeding.

The seeds of the teasel are very important for birds, such as the goldfinch, which can often be seen alighting on the old, brown flower heads in autumn to 'tease' the seeds from them.

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/teasel

09/02/2026

We had a good tidy up in the Butterfly Meadow on Sunday. Trimmed the tall wildflowers down and cut back the lelandii (tall fir trees) and Ben did a good job of clearing around the plants like the 🌺🦋🦋Budlea to let them breathe a bit.

Thanks everyone for coming. 🙏

If you didn't make it there will be another opportunity on February 22nd when hopefully the weather will be drier. X.☘️🌲🌳🥀

07/02/2026

Just a reminder that we will be doing some work and having a bit of a planning discussion in the Strathmiglo Butterfly Meadow at 10am tomorrow (Sunday 8th), all welcome.

The weather will probably be a bit damp, as it has all week, but we should still be able to get various things done.

Please bring gloves, loppers, shears, snips or similar to help with cutting things back and also some imagination and ideas to help the discussion in how we want to manage the meadow this year.

03/02/2026

03/02/2026

Dear All,

We are planning some upcoming volunteering events as detailed below, most notably this coming Sunday at 10am.

Sunday 8th February - 10AM Butterfly Meadow

Our first trip to the Butterfly Meadow is planned for this Sunday with the intention to carry out the following tasks:
- Strim over the areas of long grass for a final cut before the upcoming Spring
- Trim the conifer trees along the perimeter of the meadow
- Cut back any other unwanted growth around the meadow
- Tidy up and litter pick
- Clear and tidy up path border on the approach to the meadow
- General planning and discussion about what we want to do with the meadow this year including any potential new planting.

Please bring gloves, grass shears, loppers and any other suitable equipment to assist - hopefully the weather is suitable. The group's insurance policy covers us for all activities.

Sunday 22nd February - 10AM Community Woodland

A joint venture with the Woodland Group in the Strathmiglo Community Woodland. The purpose of this event will be:
- Preparing ground and planting new wildflower seeds
- Planting new young trees

Further information to follow but please mark the date in your calendar.

All events are open to all, please even just pop along to say hi and discuss what we are up to.

Thursday 26th February - Pub Quiz in aid of the Strathmiglo Community Woodland @ 8PM

Organised by the Community Woodland Group this is to raise funds to support this group's activities so they can cover the costs of insurance, new signage, wildflower seeds and trees.