The Higher Coach Road estate in spring/early summer…
This grassy flood plain next to the river (the riverside path is where that man in blue is walking to the left) has traditionally been mowed fairly regularly by Bradford Council. But in an age of austerity, they’re letting the grass grow… The buttercups have taken the opportunity to add a sprinkling of yellow to the “monoculture” green…
And there are larger wildflowers, too, growing up tall because they haven’t been annihilated at birth…
Recent meetings at the rowing club with residents from the estate have led to the idea of campaigning to turn this into a “real” wildflower meadow — seeded with poppy and cornflower, perhaps — to bring vivid colour to the area. It’s an approach that has already been applied up at Northcliffe Park. And the other weekend, by way of kicking this off, a group of us got together to do some planting…
Here’s the remains of the gazebo tent we put up for shade and as a refreshment area. The wind was too strong for it so we had to take it down again… an outcome indicative of how our whole plan started to go a bit south! The Council had provided us with some “plugs” to plant amid the long grass, to provide colour… but in the event it turned out that the plugs were too small, and the grass too long, to plant in the “meadow” proper. Nor, in fact, were they the promised poppy plugs… they turned out to be begonias!
Anyway, we made the best of the situation by electing to plant the plugs in the shorter grass at the edge of the riverside path (the path is the one bit of the field that is getting mown!). This in the hope of creating a little avenue of yellow to greet walkers coming by. And meanwhile Irene (below, accompanied by some local children who joined us to help out) found got some poppies from her own garden and determinedly planted them in the field outside her house on Bowland Avenue!
So, not exactly the day we’d had in mind, but from small seeds grow great, er… well you get the idea! Fun was had by all, plenty of jokes shared, and I was treated to a beer by Irene’s neighbour Ruth when we packed up. The campaign continues! 🙂