Have you ever been to the wildlife haven in town that is the Brothers’ Cemetery in St Peter Port? Or even heard of it? Well we’re making it even more pollinator-friendly.
You’d be forgiven for not having heard of the Brother’s Cemetery or Cimetière des Freres, as it was closed for 50 years until 2019 and is behind a gate in a small lane near the top of St Julian’s Avenue and the bottom of Candie and leads to Upland Road in St Peter Port.
Created by Franciscan Friars, it was intensively used for more than 8,000 burials in the 19th Century. Now it’s a precious urban habitat and an oasis of green.
We’ve recently been managing this semi-wild area for the benefit of pollinating insects – as part of a wider volunteer initiative to create a more bio-diverse habitat in the cemetery. Back in 2020 we sowed wildflower seeds in a pollinator patch to boost the pollinator friendly habitat and this year we’re reinvigorating the area with more pollinator-friendly flowers.
2025 habitat work
This year, our first task was to remove small squares of turf in preparation for planting back in January and this week our volunteers Gordon, Sharon and Andrew completed the job by planting over 300 pollinator friendly native plug plants.
These included Common Agrimony with its yellow star shaped flowers attractive to hoverflies and bees, Wild Carrot with flat white florets attractive to hoverflies, bees and beetles, Meadow Cranesbill with beak-like seed pods from which it gets its name and is attractive to bees, Oxeye Daisies which are attractive to moths, flies, beetles and solitary bees and Tufted Vetch with its spires of feathery looking flowers attractive to bees, butterflies and moths.
The turf was used to add to a “bee cliff” alongside the granite wall which we hope solitary mining bees will nest, in individual holes in the remaining soil.
You can visit the Cemetery at between 9am and 3pm on weekdays.