In a bid to brighten up a neglected street corner, Salisbury resident Michael Stroud teamed up with his step-daughter, award-winning illustrator and meadow ecologist Vicky Bowskill, to install a mural on Estcourt Road.
The new artwork adorning the façade of a disused shop window depicts a species-rich floodplain meadow, including both the colourful aboveground meadow flowers one might see in June and their hidden deep roots.
The mural aims to demonstrate the biodiversity of floodplain meadows, which can support as many as 40 plant species in each square metre, along with numerous insects, birds, mammals, fungi and other life that depends on those plants for food and habitat.
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The mural also shows how having so many different plants living close together leads to their roots filling up the soil profile, supporting soil life and building a healthy soil structure that can help to prevent urban flooding and improve water quality in rivers.
By exchanging nutrients with soil organisms, the roots like those seen in the mural also lock up large carbon stores deep in the soil. Species-rich grassland like these may actually store more carbon than almost any other habitat type, apart from peatlands.
The new mural can be seen on the corner of Estcourt Road and Park Street, at the former home of The Rocket Box Fireworks. It is also visible from the parallel section of the A36.
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