Annuals in public places

[Paul mabbott]

Don't quite know where to put this - gardening as near as anything?
Sheffield City Council has for several years been sowing mixtures of annual seeds into some of the large areas of open, utility grassland in Sheffield. The rationale is that people take more care of the space if it's flowery, the flowers are helpful for insects and other animals, it looks pretty!
These were taken in north Sheffield a week or so ago:




Not a bad floral display for September!

[aeshna5]

Excellent stuff. Nigel Dunnett at Sheffield University has been doing a lot of experimentation with various seed mixes, creating attractive wild like plantings that are both aesthetically pleasing + also wildlife friendly.

Most of the plants here are obviously not native, yet provide a wealth of nectar, seeds, etc for wildlife, more than many conventional bedding schemes.

His natural gardening ideas from green roofs to annual mixes, etc have been featured in the RHS Garden magazine several times + there are now various commercial seed mixes available fro the team. I'm very impressed with Nigel's innovative ideas.

[Tursiops2]

Very nice, very interesting. Any chance of plant list, Paul?

Originally Posted by aeshna5

Excellent stuff. Nigel Dunnett at Sheffield University has been doing a lot of experimentation with various seed mixes, creating attractive wild like plantings that are both aesthetically pleasing + also wildlife friendly.

Most of the plants here are obviously not native, yet provide a wealth of nectar, seeds, etc for wildlife, more than many conventional bedding schemes.

His natural gardening ideas from green roofs to annual mixes, etc have been featured in the RHS Garden magazine several times + there are now various commercial seed mixes available fro the team. I'm very impressed with Nigel's innovative ideas.

Does he have a website, aeshna5? I'd like to know more about this.

T2

[juliejam]

what a lovely mixture ..beautiful display.
wish other city council's would follow.. as mentioned earlier if an area is turned around others seem to take an interest.. Instead of letting it go to waste it can become a dumping ground of sorts.. and then the tax payers money will be used for the clean up..

Julie

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

Very nice, very interesting. Any chance of plant list, Paul?



Does he have a website, aeshna5? I'd like to know more about this.

T2

You could go to:

Research

This gives some idea to the projects going on.

[Paul mabbott]

Yes, somewhere at sheffield.ac.uk - I can't seem to find the link - perhaps start with - Landscape at the University of Sheffield

The plant list may take some time - there are actually different mixes in different places - Nigel, presumably, has more details. More anon- there are some other pictures of plants I'm getting identified on another thread .... must rush, Liverpool playing ...

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

Very nice, very interesting. Any chance of plant list, Paul?



Does he have a website, aeshna5? I'd like to know more about this.

T2

[Cotham Marble]

Quite apart from any other benefit it stops the Local Authority from pointlessly expending huge sums on grass cutting contracts that end up with the sward being shaved to non existence throughout the Summer months.

The arguments for bringing in this kind of management approach were being made to Councils over 20 years ago. Although there was little in the way of political objection, the nature of the tendering processes that came with privatisation of Council Contracts in the 1980s made bringing about any real change extremely difficult. I guess if cost benefits can now be demonstrated there's a chance that this approach will become more widely adopted.

For anyone interested in the history of the UK ecology movement, as far as I can remember the most prolific output of information encouraging more wildlife friendly management of municipal land came from the 'Green Deserts' campaign - the Green Desert term is still in use: Green deserts in a concrete jungle

Green Desert was used to describe monoculture grass parkland that was near sterile in both wildlife and human activity. Places where the tractor gang mower reigned supreme.

CM

[paulchandler6]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

Very nice, very interesting. Any chance of plant list, Paul?

T2

It would be interesting to get a plant list and/or mix, also more info on this as I would like to pass this to our local council to see if they would entertain something like this. It certainly brightens a site up.

Paul

[naturelover]

how beatifull should be lots more fields like that to help the wildlife.

[mrs fish]

Well done Sheffield

Our council has started a bit of wildflower mixed verges they are not as nice as yours though