Cities Bees, Butterflies and Blooms

Our bees, butterflies and pollinating insects are dying out.

This giant insect workforce pollinate our crops

and if they disappear, most of our favourite foods will vanish too.

It's a complex crisis, but poor nutrition is leaving

our insect pollinators vulnerable to pesticides and parasites.

'I'm Sarah Raven,

'and I'm on a campaign to wake people up and show everyone

'the simple steps we can all take to stop this quiet catastrophe.'

The thing is, if we all make a conscious decision to plant

pollen and nectar-rich plants throughout the country,

together, we can get Britain buzzing again!

In previous programmes, I've been campaigning in our countryside and our towns,

and I've shown how we could make our rural landscapes and our gardens

and flower displays more friendly for our bees and pollinators.

But in Britain today, over 90% of us live in cities

and, believe it or not, that figure is rising.

Concrete and control is the name of the game and that approach

might suit us and our everyday hectic lives,

but huge areas of our urban jungles are little help

to our struggling insect pollinators.

The trouble is, with a lot of our cities,

is that what you see is close mown grass,

almost everywhere, with the occasional splotches of colour

from our bedding plants.

Really pretty useless for our bees and pollinating insects.

I mean, they don't provide much food

and they don't provide them with a habitat.

But the plants we put in our city landscapes are becoming

more important than ever,

as our countryside has changed so massively.

We've intensified farming to meet our demands for food,

increased our dependence on pesticides and herbicides,

and now our insect pollinators are in crisis.

But without them, many of our favourite five-a-day foods

could disappear from the supermarket shelves.

Now, many scientists believe that the fundamental problem is

that there's simply not enough food and habitat left.

'For centuries, our wildflower meadows helped to feed

'and support our insect pollinators.

'But, sadly, it's estimated

'that 98% of these landscapes have disappeared.

'And now, they're a sight that's seldom seen.'

Sitting in the middle of a flower meadow is just

the most incredibly uplifting thing.

The exuberance, the abundance, the colour, everything,

you can't not feel jolly in the midst of it.

And I think, on so many levels,

it feels like a really, really lovely and good place to be.

'But I'm not in the middle of the countryside.

'I'm right next to the heart of Leeds city centre.'

And in this programme, I'm campaigning to bring

modern meadows like this to our cities and urban parks

and prove that they can support our insect pollinators,

contribute to our health and well being, and can save us money too.

This modern city meadow I'm surrounded by

was designed by horticulturalist Professor Nigel Dunnett.

He's spent the past two decades proving that,

with the right kind of urban planting,

you can have colourful displays that are also

a magnet for bees, butterflies and all sorts of pollinating insects.

In Sheffield, we've really developed a whole new approach,

a new wave to public planting, if you like,

mixing in non-natives and natives together

to really heighten the visual display.

That idea crosses boundaries.

We can say all sorts of things about how wonderful for the environment it is,

how great for wildlife it is,

and that's all true, but for people it's the sheer and utter beauty.

Ecologically, I would say it's as good as any wildflower meadow

you'd find in the countryside for supporting insects.

In fact, it's probably better because it will flower for much longer.

There's much more food resources for insects.

And Nigel is as passionate as I am about bringing

these landscapes to our cities, to support both our pollinators

and increase our sense of well being.

People say to me,

"This is not the right place to put meadows like this,

"they should be in the countryside, not the city,

"and they'll just get damaged and people will just disrespect them."

In fact, I can think of no better place to put them

because there's a desperate need to have meadows like this.

We need to get our bees back into cities.

But, in a way, I think people in cities appreciate these far more

than maybe in the countryside, because they are so desperately needed

and they provide such a contrast to the everyday built surroundings.

I've asked Nigel to help me on my campaign

to support our struggling pollinators

by bringing meadows right bang into the middle

of all our cities across Britain.

But my first hurdle is to win over the people

who hold the purse-strings

and make the decisions about how our urban landscapes look -

the city council park departments.

'To start, I've decided to take on Britain's

'second biggest urban jungle,

'with a reputation for concrete.

'Birmingham.'

Maybe we can persuade the guys here in Birmingham

to get rid of endless grass, which is quite high-maintenance,

and put in some really beautiful things.

It would be much better for insect life.

At the moment, Birmingham spends a whopping £19 million a year

making all the city's green spaces and parks look nice.

That means constant mowing of endless grass verges,

the growing of over two million bedding plants a year,

and employing contractors to water them all summer long.

I'm here to try and convince you

to take part in something that I think is one of the most

exciting things I've ever been involved with.

'Assembled before me are key members of the Birmingham Parks department

'and sitting up front is Darren Share,

'the acting Head of Parks, and the man I need to get on side.'

If we could actually introduce these flowering plants,

we'll get amazing wow factor and, on top of that,

it's fantastically good for insects and biodiversity.

'Everyone's listening to my enthusiasm politely,

'but I'm not sure they're going to be keen to join in.

'That's where I'm hoping that Nigel's expertise will help.'

OK. Well, I'm going to show some pictures

of our experience in Sheffield.

We think we've really got it pretty much fail safe, pretty dependable.

It's enhanced nature, which really gives you long term colour

from the same space without you having to water it, or deadhead it

or weed it or fertilize it or do anything for a whole season.

'To help our pollinating insects, what I've come to propose

'to Birmingham is that they replace some of the acres of mown grass

'around the city with modern nectar-rich meadows

'and that they change from highly bred bedding plants

to nectar and pollen-rich flowers.'

If we look at high profile city centre locations,

you know, in Birmingham here, I'm not sure if it's still there,

Birmingham Welcomes The World, but this is a few years ago.

Can we carry on doing this everywhere,

as what we see as the height of horticultural craft

in the public landscape?

Putting bedding plants in where we have to feed them and fertilise them

and deadhead them and grow them

is extremely expensive and to use, you know, the modern terminology,

it's not sustainable.

'I'm sure that breaking away from their current tradition

'of close mown grass

'and bedding plants around the city is not going to happen overnight.

'But overall, Darren Share, the acting Head of Parks,

'seems open to change.'

I think the biggest challenge is going to be

shifting the cultural change in communities views

of what we are actually doing,

and that's all about education and bringing them along with us.

If we can convince Birmingham to do it in certain key places,

you know, like down the middle of a dual carriageway,

and what we think of as the countryside coming into the middle of an inner city.

That's the thing that's so exciting.

Changing traditional attitudes towards city landscaping

is not going to be an easy task.

And getting cities to put the needs of our pollinators to the fore

is a huge sea change.

But I hope Darren will take a punt and back my campaign,

as Nigel's meadows really work for pollinators and people alike

and he and his colleagues have received world-wide acclaim

for their meadows, winning them the ultimate, high-profile prize.

At the 2012 Olympic Park in London, the whole approach to landscaping

is coming from a completely different point of view.

It's the largest city park to be built in over a century

and will bring together all sorts of wildlife-friendly landscapes

that will be seen by four billion people around the globe.

I'm meeting up with John Hopkins, who's the guy in charge.

I want to see if the Olympics could be the blueprint

for the way we plant our cities in the future.

This is about the challenges of the 21st century.

We have climate change, we have resource depletion.

We have all these challenges,

we have to learn how to live differently.

So sustainability is really at the heart of this park.

So this is a working landscape that is not only

great for people to come and enjoy

in the traditional Victorian values of recreation and education,

all of those, but particularly wildlife.

We're really embedding wildlife as part of this park.

So it's a complete creation of a natural environment,

but totally artificially.

Totally artificially, and it's the biggest

that's ever been created anywhere in the country.

To tie in with the naturalistic feel of the Park,

the Sheffield team are planning to sow

over ten thousand square metres of annual and perennial meadows

on what used to be industrial wasteland.

We're in 2010 now, and the Games are not till 2012.

The annuals, once you sow them,

they should start to flower within two or three months,

will finish flowering at the end of the summer and then will start again

the following year and the year after that.

So we're really able to use this year

and next year as experiments to see how things do.

Creating a scheme that performs for people AND wildlife

AND has a long flowering period is no easy task.

Most British wildflowers bloom early in the year,

so Nigel has included foreign flower species which bloom later.

So his display will last until the end of summer,

and our native British pollinators will go wild for it.

'But his colleague James has been set arguably the tougher challenge

'of creating long term permanent meadows

'using just British perennial wildflowers.'

These are all perennials rather than annuals.

Yes, I mean, there's a few things

just beginning to flower,

but I mean, they'll flower

pretty fantastically next year,

so second year nearly everything flowers in a perennial meadow,

but the first year is normally fairly sad, actually.

And then, the year of the Olympics,

well, we all hope, massive wow factor.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I...I, from what's here,

all being well, I mean, this is going to look fantastic.

'The perennial meadows will last for years long after the Games are over,

'and be a fantastic habitat to support pollinating insects.'

But most perennials take a year to establish and flower the year after,

so I'll need to return in 12 months time to see its full impact.

I can't think of anywhere else in the world

where something like this is being done on such a big scale.

For such a prominent high profile site to treat the main landscape

with meadows like this is really innovative.

And I think it should, we hope,

lead the way forward to a whole new field of park design,

which really is much more sustainable and exciting, I think.

If it's good enough for the Olympics,

it should be good enough for all of us.

And it's this approach that I want to take to cities

right across the country.

But for now, back in Birmingham, I have my first big win.

The council have given me the thumbs up,

so we're off on a tour around the city to identify potential sites.

Like many city centres, Birmingham's got its share of scrubby grassland

tucked between ring-roads, walkways and dual carriageways.

Little for insect pollinators and little to look at.

Darren will be backing a one-year trial of my campaign

to see if it can work pleasing people and insects alike.

And these places are top of his hit list.

In just a few months, these could be the sites

for new areas of modern pollinator-friendly meadow planting.

This is one of the main areas into Birmingham.

We've got about 331 of these baskets, all the way up there.

If everyone loves it, then maybe we can even get rid of the hanging baskets.

We are doing it in conjunction this year, but next year it'll be maintenance money

that would decide on the top baskets or would fund a further expansion.

With lots of other...

I mean, I think to have something more naturalistic will work really, really well.

-So I think you've chosen very good spots for us.

-That's good!

So when can we start?

But as well as introducing areas of pollinator-friendly meadows,

I also want to challenge Darren about the types of plants

he uses across the city in his flower displays.

What comes after the polyanthus for the summer bedding here?

A lot of geraniums and begonias,

traditional high colour, high impact.

OK, because begonias and geraniums,

much as people love them,

-the insects don't, sadly.

-No, they don't.

-No.

-They're great in a drought though! That's what I like.

-Ha-ha-ha!

The problem with many of our bedding plants is that

through years of breeding and development,

we've concentrated on showiness and colour

at the expense of the stuff the insects need,

which is nectar and pollen.

Begonias and bedding geraniums might look colourful,

but they contain precious little food for pollinating insects.

This garden is a little bit of a jewel in the city centre...crown, really.

You've got a mix of formal and informal planting throughout,

and the idea is that we look at one of these beds,

and we offer that to you.

Well, that's great!

-A bit of a plant off.

-Good.

'This really is a brilliant boost for my campaign.'

As well as a trial of meadow planting,

Darren is letting me loose in the City Centre Gardens,

to see if I can come up with a pollinator-friendly display

that pleases both people and insects alike.

Which bed is the one that I can get my hands on?

You can pick either one,

but whether you want this one that's in full sun, and...

Oh, yeah, I'd like the better one, please.

Yeah, well, we'll do that!

I don't want trees in mine!

-I want annuals, they like lots of sun.

-Absolutely.

Oh, well, that's very exciting.

Will you help me?

-I'm going to measure it, I think, and draw it.

-OK. All right.

-Here we go.

-Thank you.

'We're going to compare two beds right in the heart of Birmingham,

'in a park seen by hundreds of people everyday.'

Darren will design one bed using his traditional bedding plants

and I'll design the other

using a colourful range of pollinator-friendly flowers.

'I want to prove to Darren that a bedding display can look

'colourful and exciting but can also support bees, butterflies

'and pollinating insects if you choose the right flowers.

'And then, in a few months time,

we'll put them both to a public vote.'

The changes I'm proposing across Birmingham will test

the traditional outlook of both Darren and his team.

He's in charge of 400 groundsmen, 20 nursery staff, and a staggering

29 million square metres of grass that needs mowing every fortnight.

-Are you all right, Steve?

-Yeah, not bad.

-Great.

How is it going with this new piece of equipment?

A lot better than the older machines.

'It's taken me 25 years to get to this position.

'It gives an opportunity to try things different,

'to be a bit more creative

'and actually make a mark on the service.'

And to be Head of that service is pinnacle of the career, really.

My first priority is to make sure I've got Darren on board,

so he can then encourage change amongst his team.

To get some inspiration, I'm sending Darren to Sheffield

to see some of the modern annual meadows that Nigel originally developed

and have been sown successively every year for a decade.

OK, Darren, so here we are. What do you think?

Wow, what can I say? It's fantastic, isn't it?

What a difference. You can see where the mowing is being done all the way there.

And then, you've got this riot of colour right in the middle of a housing estate.

Exactly, what a difference from the sort of lifelessness of the mown grass.

This is full of insects and bees, I mean, it's buzzing.

That's the first thing that hit me, really,

the actual wildlife, the bees, cos I've never seen

so many bees in such a very small space.

It looks fantastic now. It's been flowering for about six weeks,

and again, if you look closer, there's lots of seed heads of things which are finished.

There's lots of poppies in here, for example.

So three or four weeks ago,

this would have been pink and red, and a bit of white.

And now, it's blue and white.

And we've got a lot of other things coming through

for later in the summer - rebeccias and coreopsis.

So for an end of April sowing, this is just left alone, pretty much,

till, really, till the winter, and it just does its own thing.

It looks fantastic and there's plenty of places that we can,

we can replicate this in Birmingham,

exactly the same type of land that we've got,

that we traditionally don't know really what to do with,

and we've either left it alone or tried to close mow it.

Well, presumably, you know, if you're having to mow this

once every one, two, three weeks,

that's a lot of effort, a lot of energy, a lot of money.

Whereas, if you take it all out of being mown,

it's great looking, but also it's got all the wildlife, I mean.

Well, we'll have a go and see what we can do.

It's late spring, and the trials are under way,

and Darren's team are preparing to

transform dull verges into corridors for insect-friendly flowers.

All of the modern-meadow seed will produce easy-maintenance plants

that won't need to be deadheaded or watered through the summer.

And if done on a large scale across the city,

it could help to save some of the £19 million

that Darren currently spends every year

on Birmingham's parks and green spaces.

'So whilst the Birmingham team wait for their urban meadows to grow,

'I'm going to try out a range of colourful pollinator-friendly meadow mixes at home

'and discover just how easy it is to grow and establish them for myself.'

We've got two annual mixes,

one is sort of delicious, lovely, soft floaty colours,

and corn poppies

and bishop's flower and things like that, so that's that one.

And then, I've got a really kind of sweetie,

old-fashioned sweetie colour mix, which is called the Candy Mix.

And it is, it's got pinks and yellows and blues,

and purples, it's a really, really colourful one.

And then, I've got two perennials as well,

one is a woodland edge mix, and that's going to go...

there's just one bit of the garden that's a bit shady under an oak tree,

so I thought that would be ideal for that, and then I've got purple haze.

They're both perennial, so they won't do as much, of course,

as the annuals this year.

These are going to give me absolute wow factor this summer,

but these will give me a bit this summer,

but then loads and loads next summer.

These meadow seed mixes have been carefully developed

using British cornfield wildflowers

combined with wild flowers from around the world that flower much later.

This results in a meadow with a much longer flowering season,

and provides insect pollinators with a pollen and nectar flow

from spring right through to autumn.

They aren't an exact science and the great thing is

you can experiment yourself and make your own

by mixing seed packets from the garden centre.

Just for the sake of completeness, I want to have a control.

And so, what I did yesterday is

I just went to the garden centre and I picked up

genuine British native wildflowers, cos these aren't.

These are Nigel's, sort of, in a way, rather evolved,

refined, non-native,

but meadow-esque flowers.

But the control is just all these delicious things,

corn poppies, corn marigold, corncockle.

And my theory and his is that this will go over quickly,

but this will give me a fantastic show for twice as long,

and this will give me a bit of show this year and more show next year.

All of the seeds are equally fiddly to handle,

so the easiest way to sow them is to mix them with something.

I've used two grams of seed to a jam jar of sand,

and that amount should cover one square metre of ground.

I've just taken the turf off these four strips.

One strip is going to be down to perennials,

the three other strips are going to be each of the annual mixes.

I've just rotivated with a bit of sand, grit and compost

because you need a fine tilth to get an even germination,

and on my heavy soil that's really quite important.

And now, I'm just raking it over and then literally now,

I'm ready to sow, so I'm just going to get going.

It's a beautiful day, couldn't be better.

All going well, it erm...

should be in full bloom ten weeks, I think, I'm hoping.

And erm...

And will then bloom for many, many, many, many weeks,

if not months.

'But as well as the benefits to pollinating insects,

'recent studies suggest that when sown in urban areas,

'modern meadows can help to encourage civic pride

'and can also have a positive effect on anti-social behaviour.'

Darren wants to see whether he can help enhance a community

by sowing modern meadows around a collection of tower blocks

in Birmingham's city centre.

Thanks for coming out tonight. They idea of today

is just to tell you about a project that we're involved with at the moment,

and our aim is to try and get more insect-loving plants right into the heart of the city.

And when we was looking at various sites around the city centre,

this is an ideal spot.

What we need to do is identify the plants that you're interested in,

and work with you as a group to actually make something that you want.

I'm really encouraged by how enthused Darren is about the meadows.

Jean Varney is the chairwoman of the all important residents association

and a pivotal force for Darren to get on board.

And she seems to be picking up on his enthusiasm.

We could have a butterfly farm as well!

HE LAUGHS

Now I'm getting ridiculous.

Whilst Darren's busy enthusing the residents of Civic Close,

it's time for me to plan my pollinator-friendly flower bed

for the city park, and I've got a lot to prove.

'I'm designing my display to compete with Darren's traditional bedding.

'It's got to have real wow factor,'

but also mine has got to look good for ages,

and that's a big challenge because the bedding does,

but most importantly, mine's got to be insect-interesting.

So one of the main things that I thought that I would add

are some tepees, with some lovely climbers.

The height extends out into the bed,

so you've got a second dimension.

But I've put a banker for insects in which is a runner bean.

And I hope you see that Darren won't have thought of climbers.

So, you see, I might be one up on him on that.

And then, the other plants that I'm going for in the display

are a lot of single dahlias.

You know, if you don't get a frost,

they can flower into December in an urban situation.

And then, I thought really complimentary to that

is the most lovely cosmos, and I know the insects love cosmos too.

Then I just need to balance that a bit with a bit of green,

so I've got zinnia envy.

I often see butterflies on zinnias here.

And what I thought is, if I sort of thread a river

right the way through,

the bed of verbena bonariensis and the insects love it,

it's always, always covered in butterflies.

So I think that's visually and biodiversity wise,

I reckon,

I reckon I'm onto a winner here.

Darren has agreed to grow my new range of plants

in the nursery in Birmingham,

so I've put the final list with packets of seed and tubers

in a box and sent it to him.

And whilst he and his team get their heads round

growing my selection of pollinator-friendly plants,

I'm lending a helping hand with the Civic Close meadow project

by sending Jean and her residents committee

to visit some city meadows in Liverpool.

I hope this will encourage them

to agree to his suggestion of sowing a modern meadow around their homes.

Much better to look at that than look at grass and get depressed,

looking at the same green grass all the time.

Oh, yeah, and this does change at different periods of the year.

Yeah.

Keith Hassle, a local resident, was involved at the very beginning

in getting the project off the ground,

and I'm hoping he'll persuade Jean

that meadows in Birmingham could look amazing,

attract lots of beautiful insects

AND even help to calm anti-social behaviour.

But it's lovely with the erm...cornflowers,

the way they pop up because

they really do make a difference.

I think if you've got a mixture,

it makes a difference and the wildlife actually come to it.

If you look as you're walking round,

if you look at the amount of bees here,

there's supposed to be a shortage of bees in this country.

With these thistles, these are ideal for butterflies as well.

Do you get a lot of butterflies?

The difference now is that everyone has got involved and it's the wildlife,

but the amount of butterflies that come in here now is unbelievable.

-Is that a peacock butterfly. Oh, wow!

-Oh, a peacock!

-Isn't that beautiful?

-Absolutely fantastic, that.

It's so impressive, the colours on it.

-It is, isn't it.

-Well spotted.

-Beautiful.

That just proves a point of what you can get if you put the likes of this

in a local community.

I mean, you take the countryside

out of the country and plonk it into the middle of a housing estate.

It's the local residents who plant this meadow every year.

The charity Landlife invites them to come along and help

sow the seeds in early spring,

so the whole community feels deeply involved.

Did you have any resistance from people when you first set it up?

We did have a few people saying,

"What the hell is the point of it?"

Well, ours is we need to deal with anti-social behaviour!

That's more important than gardens.

Anti-social behaviour, that brings you to the fact that

if you're on board in the community and they're out here doing something

and they're not out vandalising things and stuff like that.

The likes of this, you're educating the kids from a young age, you see.

But can something as simple as sowing wild flower meadows

really inspire community spirit in inner city Birmingham,

or is Jean going to have a real battle on her hands?

It's time for a catch up to find out how things are progressing.

-Hello!

-Hello, lovely to see you.

Gosh, it's so lovely.

From the people that are totally committed, great,

but there're other people saying,

"Why don't you get something done about the anti-social behaviour?

"Forget about the gardens, that's a waste of time."

But in Liverpool, they said that some of the anti-social problems

had been quite reduced because there are more people out,

looking and walking around the flowers.

I really learned a lot from the Liverpool experience.

Oh, did you?

I didn't know what to expect.

It was so lovely to see that huge mass.

It was almost an acre of corn marigold with the odd

little blue cornflower.

Well, I'd love to give you some help,

and I'd love to come back next year and see how you're getting on.

-Oh, I hope you will.

-Is that possible?

-I hope you will.

-Good.

And I hope that when you do come back, it will be a show.

All singing, all dancing wildflowers.

'The visit to Liverpool really paid off,

'and Jean and the Civic Close residents committee are now totally on board.'

And Darren and his team have agreed to sow some meadows

around the tower blocks next spring,

another great win for my campaign in Birmingham.

But over at the Council nurseries,

the amount of plants being grown for my pollinator-friendly display

is beginning to cause some worry.

My main concern is still the number of plants.

Our bed...which is the opposite side,

which is relatively the same size,

we're putting 25 plants per square metre,

so we're looking at just over a thousand geraniums.

She's putting, I think it's three per square metre,

so you're in the low couple of hundreds rather than the thousands.

But that's just my point.

I'm sure there are enough plants for the pollinator-friendly display to work,

and using fewer plants per bed across the city

could save thousands of pounds

and support thousands of pollinators too.

Four weeks later, and I'm glad I held my nerve.

Things are looking up,

my bee and butterfly-friendly plants have filled out and romped away,

and are ready to be planted out now

and get established before the public vote.

As we've tried to do it we've kept it very,

very traditional, so we've got mixed geraniums,

pinks, reds and salmons, really.

Cineraria 'silver dust' going round the edge,

and, er, we've inter planted it with verbena

cos that's the thing that we do traditional,

And then, to try and solve the problems with the pines,

we've put some small dicksonia in.

And we've got some dot plants of cannas going through,

so it's very low level,

but something you'd find in most of the parks in Birmingham.

Darren's gone for a familiar bedding scheme

that guarantees instant impact.

In contrast, I've used plants of different heights

and I've given the team the task of planting them up

with a bit of help from my three-dimensional plan.

It's very elaborate.

We don't normally deal with this...

this level of detail,

which is great, as you can see,

we're quite 'chuck it in the ground', really.

But in the end, it will be a question

of whether people prefer the classic carpet bedding effect,

or a mixture of flowering plants which also support bees,

butterflies and pollinating insects that changes through the season.

I hope she's happy with what we've done.

Darren and I are in friendly competition

with our two flower beds in the city centre.

But in other projects around the town

he's taking a punt and following my lead.

And I'm hoping, if successful,

these projects might help secure his future.

'My secondment, it officially runs out in July,

'so it will either end in July and I'll revert to my old job

'or I'll carry on acting.

'That decision hasn't been made yet.'

Making a success of this project helps!

But the trial meadow areas around the city may not be

top of his achievements this season.

It's been two months since the Parks Department

started their meadow trials,

but despite their best efforts, the elements have been against them.

An early drought in spring brought germination of the flower seed to a standstill,

and on an area of steep bank,

the seed was then washed away by flash downpours.

On top of that, there's been an invasion of weed seedlings

which have completely taken over in a number of the meadow areas.

So, at the moment, it looks like it could be a total disaster.

But, thankfully, I've been luckier back at home.

I've sown two different modern meadows, which are called

Pastel Annual mix and Candy Annual mix,

and I'm comparing them to a more traditional mixture

of purely British cornfield wildflowers.

I want to see which of them have the longest display,

and which our pollinating insects love the most.

To be honest, about a month ago we had a drought

and it was a really difficult year.

But since, we've had drenching rain for a few days,

they've really come on and they look lovely.

All three, as I'm sitting here,

are completely teeming with pollinating insects.

I mean, there are so many hoverflies here,

there are honeybees, there are bumblebees.

You know, everywhere I look is alive,

as soon as the sun comes out, with flying insects.

It really is fantastic.

What is really noticeable is the ones that we bought,

which were native wildflowers from the garden centre,

have done really well in the end.

They took longer to get going, but they now look lovely.

But I'd say there's not much bud there.

So I guess, what I sort of expected,

which is our native British wildflowers,

quite a lot of them don't have a long season.

This pastel annual mix is definitely my favourite.

The first flush of flowers comes from the ammi,

the corn poppies and the cornflowers,

and they've looked fantastic for weeks,

but really crucially there's lots of cosmos coming through now,

and that I know is going to give me lots, lots more weeks,

even months of flowering.

The one behind that, which is the Candy annual mix,

is brighter and zingey-er,

and has got some toadflax in there,

which I know is going to give me length of flowering.

So you do get the impact

and you do get the longevity.

So they definitely win my vote.

And it looks like they get the vote from our pollinating insects too,

so this really is something I'd encourage everyone to do,

even in just a corner of a garden, or in a window box.

But at the other end of the scale,

the extensive annual flower meadow trial

is also coming into bloom at the Olympic park.

So I'm meeting up with Nigel Dunnet

to see how his specially formulated Olympic mix

will look in the run up to the Games.

Is this the annual mix that you're kind of refining to have

absolutely perfect for the Olympics?

It is, I mean, we've got the chance to really experiment with this

and, as we walk along, we're really looking at time travel,

because these were sown at different times.

So we can get a feeling for what it's going to look like throughout the Games.

So this area here was sown the last in early June,

so we're actually getting a sense of what is going to look like really before the Games open.

And things are just starting to come into flower.

The main point is that it will change colour,

so it's got to look good maybe for two or three weeks before the Games,

when there will be a lot visitors.

-It's got to look special on opening day.

-Yes.

And it's got to last for two weeks while the Games are on,

but then when the Paralympics are on afterwards, it's still got to look good.

And it's very, very dense the planting, you know the sowing, isn't it?

It's much more dense than you'd ever plant in the garden,

but that's the whole point for the meadow-like look,

in that the traditional way of planting your annuals

is at equal distances so each one will produce lots of flowers.

Yes.

-Whereas here, we're probably getting one or two flowers off each plant.

-OK.

We've got hundreds of them in the same space,

so we're still getting probably more flower power

-from the same amount of space by doing it this way.

-Yeah.

'It's hard to judge exactly from the time line'

what the overall effect will be in the run up to the Games.

But the final bed has a real surprise in store.

This test area was one of the first to be sown,

and so now represents what all the Olympic annual meadows will look like

as the Games come to a close.

Oh, my God! That is just incredible!

I can't believe it, I'm absolutely stunned and flabbergasted

because this is exactly how I wanted it to look.

I was expecting to see it looking great,

but this exceeds everything I could have imagined. It's absolutely amazing.

It really is truly amazing.

And so, this is how it will look at which particular moment?

Well, it will actually look like this at the end of the Games,

because we're looking at it now at the equivalent in two years time

of when the Games will be finishing on the Final Day.

So the closing ceremony, all the awards and everything,

this how it will be, and it's exactly what I wanted it to be,

but, you know, it's been looking great from the opening day,

from two weeks ago it looked like this, and so this is total success.

Well, it really is, and it's the same seed mix as the one we've just looked at.

Yes, I mean, this is the amazing thing about the way this is formulated.

-It changes, it develops, it evolves.

-Yeah.

It gets better and better and better.

And actually, as I look into here,

there's probably still a month left for this to carry on.

There's much more to come.

'The Olympic meadow trials are well on track,

'but I wonder if the same can be said for the projects in Birmingham.'

It's been a few months since I sent Darren the seeds

and the plan for my pollinator-friendly bed,

but I'm excited by the prospect of what it could look like now.

I haven't seen it in reality at all.

So that's, that's something I'm really looking forward to.

But also, of course, I want to win.

And I want to beat the Council, so that then, hopefully,

they'll listen to me about

some other tweaks and changes that we might get in place for next year

in the types of plants that they're choosing.

So it's a really...it's really important, I think,

because if we can get Birmingham to change their attitude,

then we can get loads of other big cities too.

It's decision-day, and Darren and I will be asking the public

to cast their votes for their favourite flower bed.

Will they prefer Darren's traditional bright bed of bedding pelargoniums,

or THIS BED, my alternative bee and butterfly-friendly display.

That's fantastic, I love the contrast

of the feathery foliage

of the cosmos with the darker foliage of the dahlias,

that looks fantastic.

And I love the heights of the beans.

And so, maintenance wise, has it been more expensive or more tricky or...?

It's been a bit more tricky.

We've had people go through it,

but actually where people have gone through

and you can see what walkways through, it doesn't look too bad at all.

-It doesn't look too bad, does it?

-No.

Good! Well, can we look at yours?

Yeah, OK.

Well, I can see it from here. It's very colourful!

Completely different,

this is traditional mixed geraniums,

we've got verbenas running through,

cineraria silver dust around the edge,

and we've tried even to put ferns underneath the pines,

but even them, they've been struggling with that.

And is this what you've done year in year out, sort of thing?

Yes, this is what we do year in year out throughout the city, really.

'We'll be asking lunchtime visitors

'which flower bed they prefer and why.'

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Hello!

-Hello!

'And I'm really interested to see if anyone spots that my display

'is much more attractive to insect pollinators.'

We've done two different planting schemes.

We want to take you to them and just see which one you prefer.

This is the first bed, on your right.

And this is bed two, down here.

This seems to me like a wild garden.

It's much more informal.

This is much more structured.

This is the one I prefer.

Yes!

Yes, I've seen several beds like this.

-Oh, it's got bees on it.

-Don't you like bees?

-You don't like bees.

-No.

I'm not sure.

I think I prefer that one,

because it's like different to the ones that you usually see.

That one is very common.

I prefer that one,

cos it's got more colour in it.

We think we're going to get a male-female divide slightly.

We need some more males!

THEY LAUGH

You need to go into the streets and find some more men.

So you'd give a vote to both.

-I would. Yes.

-And what about you?

I think I'll go for this one.

It's not my personal taste, it's too formal for me.

I mean, this is very nice, but probably pricey.

It's probably easy to maintain, but no.

Oh, it's not looking good for you.

You better go and get some men.

It looks a little bit weedy and not that nice,

compared to the other one, it's more attractive.

With the colours and everything, I think it's a bit more vibrant.

-This is getting more interesting.

-Yeah.

-It is definitely a male/female...

-It is, isn't it?

This is much more interesting.

I'd see something like that on a roundabout.

-What would you say?

-I think this one is nice, cos I like the fact that there are lots of different colours.

I prefer this one as well.

-What about you?

-I like this one.

Do you? Why?

Cos it's PINK!

So the visitors seem to be choosing my selection of plants.

But has anyone spotted that my flower bed

is alive with pollinators,

whereas the traditional carpet bedding

has almost no insect visitors at all?

I like the other one!

-So you think there more bees on that one than this one?

-Yeah.

Do you think there are more or less?

More bees on this one than on that one.

I think there's more on that bed.

That's a big fat bee.

Definitely, there's more bees on the other one.

Well, that's three more for me and only one more for you.

Yeah, but mine was very...very passionate about my bed.

He was, he really loved your bed.

So much so that even though this bed

was absolutely humming with a thousand bees,

wasps and hoverflies, he wasn't having any of it!

He wasn't, no. We need some more like that.

I'm really pleased that my pollinator-friendly flower bed

has won the public vote.

And although it's clear to me that my plants are far more

attractive to pollinators than Darren's bedding pelargoniums,

at the University of Sussex, a new research project

aims to compare the attractiveness

of a varied range of popular flowering plants to our pollinators.

So what we've got here is, we're comparing 32 different varieties

of summer flowering garden plants

to see how good they are for bees and other insects.

And the reason why we're studying summer flowering varieties

is our other work decoding the honeybee dances shows that

summer is a tough time for bees to find flowers.

And the general idea is not to compare every variety.

We could never do that.

But to see the general variation which exists.

And indeed, there's at least a hundred-fold variation

among species and varieties and how good they are at attracting insects.

Prof Ratneiks' team have found that in the months of July and August,

when most of our crops and wildflowers have finished flowering,

our honeybees are foraging further into our towns and cities to find food,

but some plants are much more useful to them than others.

If we take this plant, which I'm sure you're familiar with, pelargonium,

it's a very attractive garden plant.

But the bees hardly visit it.

-So you could say that it's practically devoid of interest to insects.

-I can see.

-Whereas here, we've got a variety of lavender.

-Yes.

And this would be a hundred times more attractive.

And how do you actually measure insect visits?

Well, we walk around these patches and we stop at a patch

and we take a snapshot,

so we sort of instantaneously count how many insects.

-So, on this patch, there might be, I can see, two hoverflies at the moment.

-Right.

And we just repeat that literally hundreds of times.

-And then you average them out.

-Exactly.

And we have to do it from the whole blooming season of each variety here,

-for example, you can see a dahlia which is in the form of a pompom.

-Yes.

-And that won't be as attractive as this dahlia here which has a more open flower.

-Yes.

Because, in breeding this shape,

unfortunately they bred out what the insects are looking for,

which, of course, it's the central parts of the flower.

-Which contain the nectaries and the nectar.

-Nectar and pollen, yes.

'This research is in its early stages,

'but I think it will prove that if we change the bedding displays in our cities,

'just like I've done in Birmingham,

'there's potential to make them

'a hundred times more friendly to pollinators.'

But Back in Birmingham,

as well as changing the plants in the bedding displays,

I want to bring pollinator-friendly meadows to the city.

But this year the seed beds have struggled to perform.

Best of the bunch, is an area of central reservation

managing a modest show.

-This side shows there's true potential in what we're doing.

-Yeah, definitely.

The first issue was we were late sowing, didn't get sown till the 6th of June,

and then straight after the 6th of June,

we probably had the best sun we've had for a long time.

We had a drought.

We had a big drought.

We brought the baskets out the same time,

we always bring the baskets out that time,

and so we start watering the baskets and trying to water the seed as well.

And the actual central reservation has got a natural camber,

so I think, while we are watering the baskets, because we tend to water going down,

we washed the majority of our seed off.

So a really big learning curve.

Yeah, definitely, it shows there's true potential in it,

the plants are giving the colour, giving the colour.

They're not flopping about,

they're holding their own in a very hostile environment.

And so, will you do it in more places next year?

Yeah, yeah. We're going to try and do it in bigger areas.

Although Darren seems keen, when I see the roadside meadow,

it looks like a no man's land between the old and the new.

A short timid strip of modern meadow

with the traditional bedding above it.

I think he's torn between the two,

and it feels like my campaign is in the balance in Birmingham.

So to encourage Darren and his team not to lose heart,

I've sent them to Leeds, to see some meadows sown on a grand scale.

I really hope this will inspire them

to be bold with their meadow planting next year.

I didn't realise it'd look at nice as this.

Well, this is...really colourful.

If you take a close look at that bed over there,

the amount different bees in it is fantastic. Every other flower has a bee on it.

I've never seen so many different varieties of bees and insects around.

I mean, that must be a good thing, cos of the shortage of bees at the moment.

That colour over there is fantastic.

It's lovely and vibrant.

It's nice on its own, but seeing the wildlife, yeah, it's great.

I'm hopeful now that they've seen this huge expanse of beauty

and the benefits to pollinators,

that bigger changes will happen in Birmingham next year.

It's now spring 2011,

and the second year of my campaign.

I now want to see how a couple of the projects I've been working with have been progressing.

Inspired by their Leeds visit, Birmingham Parks Department

has started to prepare areas for meadow planting around Civic Close.

Jean, the head of the residents committee,

is clearly excited about the project.

This morning, when we got up, half past seven,

looked at, my word, they were digging already!

And I'm looking forward very much to the seeds

producing some lovely coloured flowers.

People are talking more to each other.

"What's happening?" "What are you doing here?"

And that will, to some extent, perhaps help a little more with community spirit.

I can only hope that these new areas of meadow planting

amongst the tower blocks

will continue to get the residents talking,

and maybe they'll encourage a real sense of community.

Back at home, I'm now enjoying the perennial meadow mixes

I sowed a year ago.

I sowed three annual mixes, and they were great.

But I also sowed this strip of perennials,

which is actually divided into two different mixes.

One for shade, which is a woodland edge mix,

and one sort of whites and mauves.

There's been already white and purple honesty.

And now I've got red campion,

I've got sweet rocket,

the hesperis, it looks like there's oxeye daisy coming through.

So there're lots of things and, you know,

it's already looked good, perhaps for six weeks.

And the great thing about it is because it's perennials,

it's going to come up year after year.

It makes total sense in terms of low-maintenance colour.

I've loved looking at it.

And, of course, it's fabulous for the insects.

But it's not just my perennial meadows that are coming into flower.

At the Olympic Park, the trial of British native perennial meadows

are already at their floral climax.

I'm catching up with Professor James Hitchmough

to discover just how he's going to make sure

that his perennial wildflower meadows

will flower on time for the Games.

Most of these species would naturally have more or less finished flowering

by late July, early August in Southern England.

So, what we're doing is we've been conducting

a series of trials and experiments

in the North Park on these meadow mixes.

And what we're doing is

we're looking at whether we can delay their flowering

by cutting everything, sort of a number of weeks before the Games.

Removing all the canopy, regrowing the canopy

and getting them to flower spot on.

And so, that looks at the moment as if

eight to ten weeks before the Games will pretty much do it.

And making that decision is going to be a little bit terrifying,

even with the information we're gaining this year.

If James gets it right,

next year these meadows of native British wildflowers

will flower bang on time for the Games in August.

What fantastic inspiration for cities across the UK

to integrate our pollinators right into our city landscapes.

As you walk through it, it's absolutely buzzing,

as soon as the sun comes out,

with bees and butterflies.

So it just seems to me the most incredibly exciting way

of dealing with big urban areas.

Yeah. The question is, "Why aren't we doing more then?"

And hopefully, this will contribute to actually

changing perspectives on this in the future.

So finally, after two years,

my mission to bring modern meadows to our cities is nearing a close.

I want to see how the projects I've been involved with have fared

and what their plans are for the future.

'I'm back in Birmingham, and wonder if Darren's been able to continue

'with all the changes I've been championing across the city.'

So how has it been since I was here a year ago?

Oh, it's all changing, Birmingham Park.

-I've been made permanent...

-Oh, that's very good.

-Which is good for me, yeah.

But we've also been going through some major changes

with some of the budget pressures that we've got.

We had 1.3 million to save last year,

and we've got just over a million this year to save as well, so...

-So big cuts.

-Big cuts, difficult times.

-But it just means we've got to do things in a slightly different way.

-Yeah.

And how is this all being going down within that

sort of environment of cutbacks?

-This is starting to win.

-Is it, really?

-Yeah, cos...

-That's such good news.

Once it's sown, and you've got the initial expense of the seed,

it's relatively... Well, we don't do anything,

so it's actually producing savings.

And er... we've now, we've got twelve parks now

that have got large meadows,

where we used to just close mow it, so...

Oh, that's fabulous. So, really good for pollinators and cost saving too.

Yeah, definitely.

This is a great result and a strong step in the right direction.

Darren and his team have sown areas of meadows

to brighten up a number of neglected areas around the city centre,

and clearly the pollinators are loving it.

Not only that, in 12 of the city's parks,

large areas of pollinator-friendly meadows have been sown too.

Well, it's wonderful to see such a huge sweep of it.

I mean, this is on a completely different scale to the other things we've been looking at.

Absolutely. This is a lot more...a lot larger, a lot more impact.

This is completely, you know, on the back of the scheme that we've been trying in the city centre.

A lot of the staff I've got are really enthused.

This is a completely different mix.

It's one of the trials, so it's from a different company.

So we've got different meadows, in different parks

with different mixes and we can then see what really works, really.

That's the idea of the project.

And have you had any feedback about, I mean, not just this one, but all round from the public?

Loads of feedback, loads of feedback. It's all been positive.

There's been no negative comments whatsoever.

Everybody loves them. It all brings back childhood memories.

And in the recent disturbances that we've had in Birmingham,

not a single one of our meadows or any of our flower beds

were actually touched or damaged in any way.

Oh, that is such a positive thing.

And then, on the sort of cost aspect of it,

I mean, this is obviously annual, so it is a little bit more costly

to prepare every year.

So have you thought about moving towards more of the perennial mixes,

so that you put them in and then, that's it.

Absolutely. What we want to do is have a mix and match.

This is fantastic, and this is what a lot of the public like.

-It's a problem with the perennials, that they do take a little bit longer to establish.

-Yeah.

But we are looking to try some perennials next year,

so in some of the parks we'll have perennials,

and in some other parks we'll will carry on with the annual meadows.

Fabulous! So, I mean, it really has been a win-win.

In the City Centre Gardens, a version of my pollinator-friendly scheme

has been re-planted this year,

but I'm disappointed that due to budget cuts,

it hasn't been extended across the city.

'But what I'm dying to see are the new meadow areas around Civic Close.'

How has it been?

All of the wildflower areas look fabulous.

This one here was the most admired, I think.

One elderly guy, I was outside,

the flowers were in full bloom and he said,

"You know, walking past here makes me feel happy."

-Oh, that's so great.

-And that's lovely, isn't it?

We were hoping that it might have an effect on anti-social behaviour.

And what do you feel about that?

I think the residents now are seeing

that this is making our site look much more colourful.

And they're going to be up in arms if...

people do anti-social things.

So it gives everyone a sort of sense of pride in their place?

Well, yes. I'm sure, I'm sure it does,

because of the number of people that have commented.

Normally, your comments are,

"What have you done that for?" "What a mess!"

No, this is lovely.

And I hope that the bees and the rest of the insects

have enjoyed themselves as well.

I'm confident that Darren can see how popular the meadows have been,

and that they can help save money,

and make the city more welcoming to pollinator insects too.

So I know now he'll be continuing with even more areas in the future.

Back at home, my new meadow project is also reaching its full potential.

Of all the modern meadow mixes I've tried at Perch Hill over the last 18 months,

there is no doubt in my mind that the annual mixes have won the day for me.

Particularly this one, which is a pastel mix.

And I just can't tell you how easy it's been to grow it.

I just chucked in the seed into some clear ground in April.

It was very dry, so I watered it a couple of times.

Up it came, germinated perfectly.

'No staking, no maintenance whatsoever since.

'And it just bowls me over every time I walk down in here.'

The insects, the pollinators, are deafening.

There are so many of them - bees, butterflies, hoverflies, the lot.

It is incredibly teeming.

You know, for people like Darren in Birmingham and all our cities,

this could be the most wonderful landscaping answer

for those scrappy corners or those areas of boring mown grass

that really aren't doing very much for anybody.

This is the thing to do.

'It's a wonderful place for us to be.

'It's a fabulous place for the pollinators.'

And it's saving money too.

'Over the past 18 months, I've met so many inspiring people,

'and seen such enthusiasm to help our pollinating insects

'that I'm completely convinced that if everyone does their bit,

'not only in our cities, but in our towns, our gardens,

'our villages and across our farmland,

'together we really can solve this crisis

'and get our nation buzzing again.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd