Volunteers needed to sow England’s flagship wildflower project
by Alice Wright
The first seeds of a flagship wild flower project will be sown in Liverpool and Manchester this Sunday.
A Tale of Two Cities which will create vast sweeps of colourful native flowers in prominent areas of both Liverpool and Manchester, was voted by the public as the winning Grow Wild flagship project for England last year and has received £120,000 in Big Lottery Funding.
Grow Wild, which is supported by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Big Lottery Fund, aims to inspire communities across the UK to come together to grow and enjoy native wild flowers.
In the morning sowing will focus on Everton Park in Liverpool, where derelict and paved areas of Everton Park will be transformed with wild flower displays, some marking iconic demolished streets. In the afternoon, volunteers will move on to Manchester, where the first seeds will be planted around one of the major routes into the city – Princess Road – to create a vibrant corridor of wildflowers.
Roadsides in Liverpool and parks in Manchester will also be transformed with wild flower planting.
The flagship project will also receive £15,000 next year for continued activities with local people, focusing on those aged 12 to 25 years old. It also hoped that the project will become a national example for how people and partner organisations can turn spaces into beautiful, inspiring wildlife havens.
Grow Wild is funding four flagship sites - one in each UK country. Scotland’s flagship site, in Barrhead, near Glasgow, launched last year and flagship sites in Wales and Northern Ireland will launch next year.
The first sowing event takes place in Liverpool this Sunday, March 29th, from 10.30am to 12 noon. Participants will be meeting at View Point, Everton Park. Contact Richard Scott on 0151 737 1819 for more information about getting involved.
Later that day the sowing will move on to Manchester, from 2pm to 4pm, meeting at the subway greenspace below the flyover at the bottom of Princess Parkway in Hulme. Contact Dave Barlow for more information, 07798 698 667.