Flowers in their Footsteps
How a muddy march led to wildflowers and trees growing in generations of protesters' footsteps.
Nature will thrive anywhere if we let it
We are leading a pioneering partnership between Your Park Bristol and Bath, Hargreaves Lansdown, Bristol Cathedral, Bristol City Council, Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate, and the Avon Wildlife Trust.
Since the Youth Strike 4 Climate march led by Greta Thunberg, in 2020 we have been creating wilder habitats on College Green. The new habitats provide a year round source of food for nature.
The habitats will provide food and homes for at least 2,000 new species. In just 30 seconds, a group of school children spotted 46 bees on the Green.
In Spring
In Spring 2021 volunteers helped create meadows alongside the Cathedral by planting thousands of wildflowers, with over 50 native species.
In March 2022, we worked with the One Tree Per Child team to plant six new flowering trees and a native hedgerow that will provide an all-year-round supply of food for birds and insects.
In Spring, everything comes to life. The bulbs emerge, blossom appears on the trees and the meadow starts to grow.
In Summer
We let nature do it's thing as the meadows come into bloom.
Hundreds of thousands of flowers bloom, creating colour, food and enjoyment for people and nature.
In Autumn
We use the traditional method of scything to cut the meadows.
Scything is great for nature because it allows insects to escape, uses people power and leaves the cuttings whole which helps reseeding.
We seed the meadow areas with new species like tufted vetch and field scabious which flower later into the summer months. We also sowed yellow rattle which competes with the grass.
In Winter
We partner with Hargreaves Lansdown to plant more than spring bulbs into the meadow area. Together we have planted over 20,000 daffodil, wild tulip, snakeshead fritillary, bluebells and snowdrops bulbs.
The trees come into fruit, providing much needed food for birds and bats.
