Last year, we met with customers at Fewston Court to find out whether they’d like us to introduce wildflower areas or bulb planting to bring some colour to the communal lawns. Customers gave overwhelming support to the idea, with a preference for wildflowers.

As part of the consultation, customers suggested which areas they’d like to us to develop and, as this was a pilot project, we chose two of the most popular south-facing areas to trial. Drawing on our own knowledge, and wider research, of developing successful wildflower meadows we chose a robust annual wildflower seed mix developed by the University of Sheffield.

Over the last year, our Community Spaces team has been carefully preparing the ground, planting the seeds and nurturing the flowers, giving customers a beautiful splash of colour on the communal lawns from June through to September.

As well as adding colour, the wildflowers have also attracted pollinators and positive feedback from the wider community:

While the areas need ongoing maintenance to keep them looking their best, they require less mowing than grass, reducing air and noise pollution from the mowers and lowering costs, meaning we can invest in other improvements.

We’re looking to increase the size of the wildflower beds and will check in with customers at Fewston Court to find out about other improvements they’d like to see.

We’re hoping to introduce similar planting in other areas soon so do keep an eye out for further updates!