Many Tower Hamlets Homes’ estates will be a blaze of colour next spring. Staff have been busy this autumn planting wild flowers, bulbs and a hedge to make their estates more attractive for residents and for wildlife.
During November, 21 new wild flower patches, or “annual meadows”, of a variety of shapes and sizes, have been created, mostly within lawns. These have been sown with Cottage Garden Wild Flower Seed Mix, which includes typical cornfield annuals and a few perennial wild flowers. These will produce a very colourful display in the spring and summer, and provide plenty of nectar for bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. As the name suggests, annual meadows need to be re-sown every year, and the 26 meadows created last winter (including the one on Commercial Road, pictured above and left) have been re-seeded with the same Cottage Garden mix. Spring bulbs have been planted in three additional lawns to provide even more colour and a valuable early source of nectar.
Also in November, the mixed native hedge planted last March at Matilda House has been extended, thanks to a free “Wild Harvest” tree pack from the Woodland Trust. A total of 420 saplings of Hazel, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose and Elder were planted along the Stockholm Way boundary of the estate, to create a further 69 metres of hedge. It might not look much now (see photo left) but, as the hedge matures, it will become a great habitat for birds and invertebrates, and provide an attractive outlook for residents, and for people walking along the adjacent streets.
Photos by Veronica Suwara
