13 years ago, Rotherham, England turned 8 miles of mowed roadside grass into a "river of flowers." In 2021, they added even more miles. The original scheme was commissioned by Rotherham Council in 2013, designed by Professor Nigel Dunnett at the University of Sheffield, and seeded with a 180-species wildflower mix along the central reservations of the town's main ring road. It replaced mowing that had been costing the council around £80,000 a year. Since then: the wildflower verges have saved roughly £23,000 to £25,000 per two-year mowing cycle, increased pollinator abundance, and inspired similar programs in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Sheffield. In 2021, Rotherham added 3.5 more miles across 12 new sites including Herringthorpe, Swinton, Harthill, and Maltby. They just keep expanding it. The UK has lost 97% of its wildflower meadows in the last 100 years. Most of what was lost was paved, plowed, or mowed. The verges nobody was using anyway turned out to be one of the largest untapped habitats in the country.

Lovely to be part of this, supporting the wonderful @BearwoodHub.

We had a lovely session at the Early Nurture Pre-School in Lozells, planting sunflowers and making mini-meadows in egg-boxes. Thanks to the generosity of @FESFirefighter the children were all able to learn more about bees, taking home a copy of 'My Busy Bee'. @BiShabnum81594

Lovely to see this pocket meadow in Spark Green Park, sown by the Friends' group, doing so well.

It is always such a pleasure working with Sadia and the Friends of Spark Green Park.

We did it! 1,000 metres of wildflowers have been sown across Birmingham thanks to a @BupaFoundation Green Community Grant. 12 organisations have run 18 activity sessions with the support of 39 volunteers and 314 individuals have sown our seeds. Huge thanks to everyone.

Really looking forward to being part of this on Thursday.

Dawberry Corner Community Garden is such a wonderful community resource. Thanks to funding from a @BupaFoundation Green Community Grant we were able to join local residents to sow a pocket meadow to help bring back the pollinators.

Looking forward to seeing the stones in this fountain at Moseley Hall Hospital being replaced by wildflowers, thanks to the seeds we delivered today. Just hope these two regular visitors don't eat them all!

Despite the clocks going forward and the weather not being great, we still had a great turn-out to sow wildflowers at Sparkhill Park on Sunday. The Friends are doing a terrific job of looking after the park. Hopefully there will be lots of wildflowers soon.

We had a great time at Planet, Pizza and Play at Allens Cross Association in Northfield on Saturday. 33 children (and a few adults!) came and made seed-bombs with us. Many thanks to @ecobirmingham for arranging such an enjoyable event.

We’re at Sparkhill Park this morning sowing wildflower seeds. Do come and join us if you can.

We’re here at the Allen’s Cross Community Garden on Tinkers Farm Road in Northfield. So many things happening including music and pizzas later. Do come along if you live in the area.

Trees are not usually our thing, but when, thanks to @nationaltrust we had the chance to plant these in Ladywood, we couldn't miss the opportunity. So glad we did.

Really looking forward to being part of this event. Do come along.

It was a cold one this week, making mini-meadows in egg-boxes, at @ecobirmingham Young Bunch at the Big Red Shed, but the campfire definitely helped and the food was amazing.

Thanks to funding from the Bupa Foundation (Groundworks) we ran a workshop with Natural England, for 14 community organisations, providing information about pocket meadows, biodiversity and pollinators, and giving each one 100 square metres of wildflower seeds to sow locally.

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