Open Country

Britain's roadside verges rarely get much attention, but can play host to a whole range of plant and animal species. In this programme Martha Kearney finds out about this overlooked habitat. She meets a community group in East Sussex whose members grow plants at home specially to plant in the verges of their village, and talks to the charity Plantlife about the importance of verges as an environmental habitat. She goes out exploring with artist Nessie Ramm, who focuses on painting the tiny details of roadside verges, and who last year won the New English Art Club Climate Emergency prize for her work entitled 'Reduce Speed Now'.
Producer: Emma Campbell

Jon Gower is in Criccieth in Gwynedd, to explore the area’s connection to Robert Graves’s 1929 poem, Welsh Incident.
Robert Graves wrote the poem after inspiration struck on his train travels in the area with his father, after a Welsh policeman aboard told them a story of having recently seeing a mermaid from the sea caves of Criccieth.
Jon Gower, a writer and poet himself, heads to the source to learn more, hearing about how the poem resonates with current local residents like the clerk of Criccieth Town Council, Catrin Jones, who then commissioned Howard Bowcott, a local artist, to make a playful sculptural interpretation of the poem for the town green.
Producer: Eliza Lomas

Britain’s deer population has surged to around two million. These iconic animals are well-loved, but their growing numbers are putting real pressure on the countryside - stripping young hedges and woodlands, damaging crops, preventing natural restoration and harming other native wildlife. To control the population, hundreds of thousands of deer are shot each year. Critics argue hunting in the name of conservation is inhumane, and a short-term fix. Others baulk at eating ‘Bambi’. Supporters argue that it’s the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly meat you can get. Mary-Ann Ochota heads into the field with a professional stalker to see what deer management really involves, from woodland to wild meat.
Produced and presented by Mary-Ann Ochota

Martha Kearney visits one of the UK’s earliest environmental restoration projects. Southern Scotland was once covered in broadleaf woodland, rich scrub, heath and bog. That was before sheep, humans and conifers took hold. Now a group of visionary volunteers are restoring that landscape in what they call the ‘wild heart of southern Scotland’.
Set in a 1600 acre glacial valley in lowland Scotland, Carrifran Wildwood is the first tranche of a wider restoration area which aims to wheel back six thousand years. The idea is to recreate the primeval forest that proliferated back then. It will act as a carbon sink, a flood mitigator and a generator of biodiversity.
The planting schedule is drawn from a catalogue created from evidence in the ancient peat bog. Unlike other ‘rewilding’ projects, Carrifran Wildwood aims to exclude human beings from this valuable space, an unusual step which the founders see as crucial to its success.
Producer: Mary Ward-Lowery

Thriplow Daffodil Weekend in Cambridgeshire started as a way of raising money for a church roof in 1968. Nearly sixty years later, it is thriving. More than 40,000 bulbs are planted each year to create the incredible displays and a small village of just 250 residents welcomes more than 10,000 visitors over the weekend. Martha Kearney joins them to discover what’s involved, meeting the organiser Paul Earnshaw and ‘daffodil Tom’ who spends his winter planting the bulbs.
Daffodils are ubiquitous in spring in Britain. We see them on vergesides and gardens across the country, but the flower is not native to the UK. Martha visits Cambridge Botanic Garden to find out more about the history and use of the humble daff. There are around 30,000 varieties of daffodil, or narcissus, grown - but some varieties are extremely rare. The Royal Horticultural Society is asking gardeners to log any pink blooms, to find out how many are left.
Celebrated in literature and used for centuries in medicine, there is much more to the daffodil - as Martha finds out on her travels in Cambridgeshire.
Producer: Helen Lennard