We haven’t always been fans of those who anat to see grassed areas left to grow “wild”. One motivation has been to help pollinators (bees) but to often they have become eyesores packed with litter and potentially hazardous thorn bushes. One case in point are the long neglected verges in Foss Islands Road.

However there is an example of a planting scheme that has gone well on Hull Road. The roundabout there is a blase of colour this summer.

This is mainly down to the efforts of Cllr Mark Warters who is himself a professional horticulturalist.

He tells us, “

“Took many years of increasingly aggressive emails and ridicule to get CYC to stop putting bedding plants in twice a year, neglecting them to the point that they were waist high in weeds and half dead through lack of water to taking on board the idea of clearing it and sowing it down with a flower mix.

Last year was the first year, the tree in the centre was planted this year January time and the whole lot should have been oversown with a permanent wildflower Mix that should take over in time from the annuals.

However given how last year’s annual Mix has sown itself and proved to be very drought resistant, colourful and requiring little if any maintenance – dead stems cut over once in the Winter – it might be worth pursuing on other roundabouts to produce a better feature and save time and money.

We hope that Councillors in other parts of the City will follow this lead. The key clearly is to prepare and maintain beds properly.

Initially at least it is probably as much work as planting bedding plants. But the results are more resilient and – in the case of Hull Road at least – require little on going maintenance.