{"id":35549,"date":"2026-06-15T19:46:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35549"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:46:01","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T18:46:01","slug":"abbey-gardens-wildlife-friendly-drought-tolerant-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35549","title":{"rendered":"Abbey Gardens: wildlife-friendly drought-tolerant plants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026061511.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe new planting scheme in the Abbey Gardens ornamental beds is now beginning to fill out. Recent rainfall, together with a layer of mulch, has helped get the young plants established.\u00a0 <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026061506.jpg\" \/> Earlier this spring, perennial plants were introduced as part of a move away from traditional seasonal bedding. The scheme, developed by the Grounds Maintenance and Climate and Biodiversity teams at VWHDC (Vale of White Horse District Council), replaces short-lived annual displays with longer-lived, drought-tolerant planting designed to support wildlife and improve resilience and reduce maintenance.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026061504.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe plants, supplied by a local Oxfordshire nursery, were selected for both their hardiness and their value to pollinators. Species include alliums, asters, anemones, coneflowers, field scabious, catmint (shown above), thyme, and verbena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new planting scheme in the Abbey Gardens ornamental beds is now beginning to fill out. Recent rainfall, together with a layer of mulch, has helped get the young plants established.\u00a0 Earlier this spring, perennial plants were introduced as part of a move away from traditional seasonal bedding. The scheme, developed by the Grounds Maintenance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abbey-grounds","category-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}