College Bank community wild flower garden

John Wantling with the flowers of the garden

The College Bank estate community ‘organic wild flower garden’ has been an improvement on last year’s garden.

This year, Kirsty Wild of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing was able to provide the money which allowed the purchase of a far better seed mix, supplied by Pictorial Meadows. This particular mix was called ‘Nice & Easy Hybrid Mix’. This is a quick flowering hybrid mix blending together colourful meadow annuals, biennials and short term perennials, designed to flower well for three seasons including the year it's seeded if spring sown.

This is the same seed mix used at The Olympic Park. The beautiful wildflower meadows of the Olympic park were one of its most talked about features. The creator, Mr Dunnett, said the emotional reactions of visitors during the Games showed why cities should have more wild areas (Olympic Park will blossom with more meadows of wild flowers - London Evening Standard 14 May 2013).

With the annuals in the mix flowering this season, this year’s display is a vast improvement on the previous year and the next couple of seasons will, hopefully, be even better with the biennials and perennials maturing and coming into flower.

A spokesperson said: "Sadly, College Bank’s wild flower garden has a few bare patches under some trees, caused by a lack of sunlight, and so we are looking into sowing some shade loving species in these areas next year, to make our garden even better.

"We should add that a bag of seed was also provided by Rochdale Council’s Tracy Hibbert, which we are hoping to utilise next year.

"John Wantling, along with Frank Healey, gave his time to create this garden for the community.

"Volunteers are most welcome to assist in next summer’s organic wild flower garden."