Bumblebee roundabout
The future bumblebee and wildflower traffic island, looks a little tired and depressed at the moment! As most of them do!
But that need not be the case…..
Outer perimeter left grassed for safety reasons
This roundabout was a typical boring green grassed roundabout. I approached my local council and suggested that instead of a boring green roundabout, why did n’t they create a wildflower and bumblebee friendly traffic island? Obviously there are monetary constraints regarding seeds and labour….so although my initial idea of an inner circle of the taller flowering red clover in the middle, with the lower flowering white clover on the outer perimeter, ( both bumblebee ‘top’ flowers, would look impressive as a bulls eye and I am a Liverpool FC supporter!!) the annual cornfield meadow mixture was sown, along with some red clover. This particular island is extremely busy as it leads to the M62 and at times, there is very heavy, though slow moving traffic. Drivers frustrated by the peak hour queues, may benefit by seeing a lovely calming wildflower ‘meadow’! The first stages began shortly after my suggestion and the middle circular section was ‘ploughed’ over, sprayed to kill the grass, leaving the outer section to grass.
Wildflower/Bumblebee roundabout at the very start
The next stage involved seeding the inner circular area and let nature take her course…….
wildflower seeds starting to grow on the bumblebee island!
The weed killer stops the more vigorous fast growing grass from suppressing the wildflower annual corn meadow seeds and inhibiting their germination and growth…….
Bumblebee traffic island with flowering wild flowers
The corn poppies and blue cornflowers are particularly attractive to bumblebees……
A different view of the wildflowers-mainly ox-eye daisies
All these photographs of the wildflowers in bloom were taken in the middle June 2011……..
Bumblebee traffic island- A few corn poppies, corn flowers and ox-eye daisies
Large vehicles use the roundabout….
Same shot below with hopefully a more relaxed HGV driver on his way to the M62……!
It works for me..!!
Cornflowers predominate on this section of the roundabout
Bumblebee/wildflower annual corn field meadow mixture
Another happy driver..?
After the initial flush of the above wild flowers, the glorious corn marigolds and red clover took over in July……
Corn marigolds now starting their flowering dominance…..
bumblebee friendly red clover planted in a large patch on the wildflower traffic island
red clover on bumblebee island-just starting to fade
red clover and carder bumblebee on bumblebee island! Just dropping in for a drink of nectar!!
Red clover, ox eye daises and a sprinkling of corn poppies on bumblebee island
Ask your council to plant wildflowers seeds on your traffic islands and/or roadside verges….saves them mowing several times a year!!!!!
In these days of austerity, doom and gloom, its always nice to show appreciation and if you feel this does look nice a quick email to Kevin McCready, Area Manager Parks and Streets Service,
kmccready@warrington.gov.uk who was instrumental in this project
expressing your views, may go down a long way and perhaps give someone a smile or two and even perhaps extend the scheme to other areas!
Read more articles about bumblebees.
Read more articles about the bumblebee nest box
For more information and to help save bumblebees join the Bumblebee Conservation Trust at Stirling University
Hi George, i have passed the same traffic island a number of times this month and thought that it looked realy nice (i wondered who’s handywork it was),” well done George”, your work has turned something which is normally dull into an inspiration for us all.
Thanks
Why thanks Paul, glad you appreciate my behind the scenes work!!! Cheers George
Wow! I’m really impressed with your efforts and the brilliant idea! It may be worth forwarding a link to other local councils as well!
Hi Carol, hopefully a few people will badger their councils…it really is nice though when they listen and accept your argument!! Cheers George
Hi George, your such a smart arse, well done it looks fab. xxx
Hi George what a smart arse! It lookes fab. What a brill idea.
Looks Great!
Well done George!
Thanks Mary, hope it sows the seed for others to follow!
This is brilliant … and inspirational!!! Why don’t we have wildflower meadows on every roundabout????
Hi Lisa,
Glad you like it, perhaps we all need to try and persuade the local authorities? No harm in trying! It worked for me!
Great idea. Well done for proposing it to the council and top marks to them for implementing it – albeit a little skewed from your suggestion, but nonetheless a great step in the right direction for our little bumble and wild bees 🙂
Thanks Yvonne, I hope it will inspire others to do the same! Cheers George
Looks great.
But weedkiller was used….?
I cannot say for sure..I did see the traffic island being lightly turned over by tractor but never saw chemicals being used on it myself. This is often discussed at various places I have visited. Do you wait for a long period whilst you control weeds by non chemical means, e.g. weed and grass removal by hand, covered with weed suppressing materials and mulched, which can take many months depending upon the weeds ( I have done it believe me!) and then eventually you may be left with a weed free area to sow seeds or do you use a weed killer to eradicate all weeds and competing grasses giving the wildflower seeds much more of a chance to grow and thereby establish a lot quicker? I have seen weed killer used in many wildflower meadows that prior to being a wildflower meadow, was a piece of grassland ( usually rye grass) with associated weeds, then transformed into a wildlife friendly wildflower meadow. Which is best? In this case chemicals may well have been used I simply do not know.
Fantastic idea, hope many more roundabouts are done like this
Thanks Karen I’m sure people will find this a positive move and approach their council. Cheers George
Greetings. I`m a BCT volunteer. They know me at Stirling offices!
Do you mind if I switch subjects? I`ve been sending the above type
promo to our local council for 2 years, without any feedback from them.
I`d like you to do something even more useful!!! Please unearth all the
research articles upon potatoe yields increased by bumblebees and increase in nutrients by them, and lets get this information out there to combat the enormous void in knowledge upon this subject.Its okay for tomatoes-the sister plant not so!
Will email you max.
Natalie,Great site, absolutely marvellous! So nice to see others putting in so much time and effort . Well done! I will read it and browse your links shortly. Best wishes from, George